Spirit, Soul & Body Workshop campaigns for cleanliness
Accra, Sept. 7, GNA – The Spirit, Soul & Body Workshop (SSBW), a non-governmental organisation has commenced a campaign to promote cleanliness in the country.
The initiative would contribute to the pursuit of Sustainable Development Goal six, the milestone for improved access to clean water and sanitation.
The SSBW announced the campaign at the celebration of its ninth anniversary on Sunday in Accra on the theme, “Cleanliness is Next to Godliness.”
The Reverend Dr. Nanayaa Tina Owusu-Prempeh, Executive Director of SSBW, said the theme for the celebration was chosen to guide the search for solutions to the poor sanitation situation in the country.
She said though Government had a key responsibility to ensure proper sanitation, individuals were responsible for protecting their environments and maintaining hygiene to reduce poor hygiene-related diseases.
Rev. Owusu-Prempeh admonished the public, especially Christians to protect the environment from indiscriminate littering and other forms of environmental abuse practices and neglect to make a positive impact on the environment.
She advised women to support the campaign, saying: “A lady is one who can clean. Beautiful ladies,crossing your legs is one thing and looking round where you have crossed your legs is another thing.”
Madam Cecilia Abena Dapaah, Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, in a speech read for her, said being clean was a sign of spiritual purity and if churches could make their members understand that not maintaining personal and environmental hygiene was a sin, it could make a difference.
She quoted Jeremiah 2: 7(Bible), which states: “I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable,” and advised Christians that keeping the environment clean was non negotiation.
Now the world was experiencing natural disasters worse than what had happened before, due to the irresponsible nature of people towards the environment, she said.
Madam Dapaah said cleanliness could only be achieved if everyone saw sanitation as his or her business, adding: “To see a clean Ghana, we need to play our part as individuals, families, groups and communities.”
Mr Ogochwuku Nweke, a Legal Consultant, speaking on the theme, said people ought to be clean within and around them to make society better.
He said all manner of people from varied professions came from the Church, yet society was full of corruption, violence, and other forms of misconducts.
“To be able to transform society, you must transform yourself first. It is so easy to see what others do wrong but not what you do. We should not get used to judging people’s weakness from the point of our strength,” he advised.
Spirit Soul and Body Workshop is a non-governmental organisation which offers a platform for motivational speakers to meet and inspire others to unearth their capabilities.
The ninth celebration saw the rewarding of Mr Samuel Amo Tobbin, Chairman, Tobinco Group of Companies with the SSBW “Most Confident Personality of the Year” award.
