LASG ENGAGES YOUTHS ON HANDWASHING, CLEAN LAGOS CAMPAIGN 
In compliance with the National Youth Volunteer Programme on ‘Handwashing and Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet’ Campaign, the Lagos State Government on Thursday flagged off the training of youth volunteers on handwashing for COVID-19 interventions in the State.Speaking at the training programme, the Permanent Secretary, Office of Environmental Services, Mrs. Belinda Odeneye, said the programme would help protect and maintain health security as well as curtail the spread of deadly infectious and communicable diseases.She said the volunteer programme was in compliance with Federal Government’s “Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign”, adding that participants will be chosen from the 20 Local Governments across the State to project the adoption of safe WASH practices for COVID-19 prevention. The Permanent Secretary, who spoke through the Director, Sanitation Services, Office of Environmental Services, Dr. Hassan Sanuth said the Youth Volunteer Programme is one of the interventions of the State Government to curb the pandemic and is designed to engage youths at the grassroots, while creating awareness and sensitisation on safe water, sanitation and hygiene practices.Odeneye said that following an earlier flag-off of “Clean Lagos: Use The Toilet Campaign”, efforts have been put in place to ensure that all public places including schools, hotels, fuel stations, places of worship, market places, hospitals and offices have accessible clean water and toilets within their premises for public use.She said the volunteers at the community level will be trained on communicating and demonstrating good sanitation and hygiene practices that can help contain the spread of Coronavirus and curtail the practice of open defecation in the State. “The youths will, in turn, be expected to engage household, community and institutional levels to pass on the message of effective handwashing as well as accelerate efforts to end open defecation”, she stated.Also speaking at the event, the representative of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Oluyemisi Akpa, congratulated Lagos State on the initiative, adding that the National Youth Volunteer programme was borne out of the ‘Clean Nigeria: Use the Toilet Campaign’ launched in 2019, which was aimed at mobilising high level political support, resources as well as the entire populace towards building a new culture of safe sanitation.Participants at the flag-off ceremony include Directors of the Federal and State Ministries of Environment and selected Environmental Sanitation Officers from various Local Governments, who were trained during the flag-off on effective WASH steps at critical times, faecal-oral route of disease transmission and applicable barriers. The officers will in turn train the youth volunteers, who will ensure diffusion of the messages to the least person in the community. AA/TMS/OSCAPTIONPIX: (L-R) Head (Volunteer Corps) Sustainable Development Goals & Investment, Mrs. Funmilayo Owolabi; representative of the Permanent Secretary Ofice of Environmental Services, Dr. Hassan Sanuth; representative of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mrs. Oluyemisi Akpa; Director Environmental Health, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, Mr. Akeem Ola-ewe; Head Public Sanitation, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources and Zonal Coordinator, Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Ms. Damilola Akomolafe during the Lagos State flag-off of the National Youth Volunteer Programme for Handwashing and Clean Nigeria campaign held at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, Ikeja, Lagos on Wednesday.
