WIFE OF ENUGU STATE GOVERNOR TO ESTABLISH SICK BAYS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS, ADVOCATES FOR HAND WASHING BY PUPILS

The wife of Enugu State Governor Mrs Monica Ugwuanyi has reiterated the maintenance of healthy habits, especially the observance of proper hand washing in our schools, as key to healthy living.

She made this remark during the continuation of her pet health project involving de-worming of primary school pupils and demonstration of hand wash procedures in some selected schools in Nkanu West Local Government Council of Enugu State.

Mrs Ugwuanyi who carried out this phase of the project in Five Primary schools in the local government council, namely Amuri Primary School, Central School Obuoffia, Central School Akagbe Ugwu, and Attakwu Primary School, noted that in addition to the de-worming and hand wash process she wanted to use the opportunity to access the needs of the schools and the conditions under which the students were studying.

To this end, she insisted that during her next visit to the schools she would want the pupils and teachers to stay in their classes instead of pitching canopies outside the premises so that she would be in a better position to observe the performance of their teachers and equally take note of the facilities they lack first hand.

The governor’s wife pointed out that subsequently she was planning to expand the scope of the project in the schools she would be visiting next by including Malaria tests and distribution of malaria drugs to the benefitting schools.

Mrs Ugwuanyi used the opportunity to urge parents of the pupils to take the task of parenting seriously. She reminded them that the initiative she took by teaching them hand washing habits could only be sustained if the parents took up the responsibility of continuing with the lessons at home. In her words “the worms that were dispelled in the course of this visit could only be kept permanently at bay if the pupils are made to maintain clean habits”.

She singled out for special commendation teachers of Central Primary School Akagbe Ugwu who she pointed out were dressed responsibly as role models to their pupils and urged them to keep up the good works.

As part of her plans for the future, Mrs Ugwanyi revealed that she intends to establish sickbays in primary schools all through the state to provide pupils the opportunity of accessing quick medical attention during emergencies. She equally noted that she would want to replicate a practice in western countries where parents were allowed to assist teachers of their wards teach classes one day out of the week so they could better appreciate the rigors of teaching and also observe firsthand the problems their wards encounter in school.

In her remarks at the occasion, the wife of the caretaker committee chairman of Nkanu East Local Government Council, Mrs Ugochi Okereke, who attended with the wives of the other local government chairmen, appreciated the governor’s wife for flagging off the project in her local government council, and observed that her Excellency’s initiative was bound to not only check the spread of worm in school children but will also instill in them life saving hand wash culture.

Mrs Okereke observed that the governor’s wife had carried out several charitable works in the past before embarking on the de-worming project. Mrs. Ugwuanyi, she noted, had in the past organized breast cancer tests among women in Enugu State and had even gone ahead to send one of them that tested positive for treatment without cost to the beneficiary.

In all the five schools she visited the governor’s wife gave out gifts of writing materials to all the pupils, while singling out five outstanding pupils in each of the schools for gifts comprising of school bags.