Tehey (near Ada), Feb. 23, GNA – Mr. Atsu Doe Gadugah, Stool father of Tehey, a remote community in the Ada West District of the Greater Accra Region, has disclosed that four children sleep under one mosquito net in some houses in the community.
“We have families of eight who share two to three mosquito nets and so you could just imagine how we are living our lives here, » he said and called for support from Government and other philanthropic organizations.
He expressed worry and fear that in this COVID-19 era « the practice can expose the children to contract both malaria and the current COVID-19. »
Mr. Gadugah told the Ghana News Agency at Tehey near Ada on Tuesday that the residents who were mainly peasant farmers and also stone miners by extracting from quarry sites were unable to afford the cost of mosquito net.
“Being a remote area, most people find it difficult taking care of their children. We have not been seeing any developmental project in our community like we hear on radio happening at other places.
Mr. Yidana Adam Masahudu, Environmental Health Officer at the Ada West District Assembly who was part of a team of officials including the GNA who visited the community, used the occasion to educate pupils of the Tehey D/A Basic School on how to avoid breeding mosquitoes.
He noted that empty cans collects water when it rained and served as breeding places for mosquitoes, and advised the children to bury used cans.
He also discouraged them from burning refuse as it had health implications.
Mr Masahudu added that malaria was the next deadly disease after COVID-19 and therefore the need to take care of themselves and their families.
Some of the pupils and students shared their personal experience on malaria with GNA. Some of them mentioned that they had been sleeping under mosquito nets, but that they did so with other siblings.
Mr. Dogbey Solomon Obuaba, Headteacher Tehey D/A Basic School, commended the Ada West District Education office for occasionally supplying resident with mosquito nets.
