The regional Director for Region One, Mrs. Anna John Ceesay, has urged the teachers in her region to share information with other teachers who were not part of a five-day sensitisation workshop on malaria control and prevention.

Mrs. Ceesay made this statement recently during her welcoming address to 500 teachers drawn from childhood centres, lower and upper basic schools in the region.

The five-day workshop took place at the regional education centre in Kanifing. Mrs. Ceesay described teachers as a very important target group for the dissemination of information to both students and parents about malaria control and prevention. She emphasised that as teachers their role in sharing the information gained at the workshop is very important. She told those gathered that this is the second workshop of its kind organised by the Department of State for Health (DoSH) for teachers in the region.

According to Mrs. Ceesay, the Department of State for Basic and Secondary Education (DoSBSE) has applauded the efforts of DoSH to sensatise teachers in the region on health issues. “If teachers and students are not healthy the Department of State for Basic and Secondary Education could not achieve quality education. A workshop such as this one could not have come at a better time,” she said.

She finally told both the DoSH and teachers that her office is always open to them.

Lamin Jarju, the programme officer for insecticide treated nets (ITN) section at the DoSH, told participants that bad air was the first name for malaria adding that it was discovered 1,000 years ago. According to Mr. Jarju, the highest number of cases of malaria were recorded in the Central and Upper River regions because of the prevalent climactic conditions there. Alhagie Sankareh, Olimatou Kolley, Sophie Njie and Sulayman Manneh were the resource persons at the workshop. The workshop was chaired by the Mr. Omar Jatta.