By Lawrencia Akoto Frempong
Kpone, Aug. 4, GNA – The Benemef Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, has handed over four biodigester household toilet facilities to some residents of Kpone in the Kpone Katamanso municipality.
The foundation also donated toiletries and food items, including sacks of rice, tomato paste, and cooking oil, to the vulnerable.
Mr. Benjamin Opare, founder of the Benemef Foundation, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during the handing over of the facilities that the foundation aimed at restoring hope and joy to deprived communities in Ghana.
Mr. Opare said the charitable organisation mostly operated in rural and deprived communities by providing health care services, educational materials, and sanitation facilities, among others.
He added that the foundation, since partnering with Dr. Wanda Evans-Brewer, an overseas educator and lecturer in 2022, had aided communities with bio-digester toilet facilities, mini libraries stocked with books for some schools, and also provided wheelchairs for hospitals.
He said, “As part of the foundation’s charitable work, we also support schools with food items such as rice, oil, tomato paste, and sanitary items and provide health care services within our reach.”
Mr. Opare said for the foundation to achieve its aim to improve sanitation in communities, ending open defecation was an important issue, thus the building of public toilet facilities and household toilets for these communities, especially residents of Kpone.
“There are so many houses in Kpone without household toilet facilities who engage in open defecation along the beaches, causing more health problems in the community,” he noted.
He urged the public to help end open defecation in their communities as it was a major issue the country faced, while calling on other institutions to join hands with his outfit to project such an initiative as the Government could not do it alone.
Dr. Wanda Evans-Brewer, on his part, noted that as part of the foundation’s charity, they were awarded with the Best Environmental Conservation and the Best Community Engagement awards for their efforts to end open defecation in Ghana.
She reiterated that the government should not be the only institution fighting to end poor sanitation in the country; rather, anyone, whether citizens or tourists, could also help end poor sanitation and sensitise others about sanitation and its related issues.
She said that everyone would be at risk if they did not engage in good sanitation practices.
There was the need for all people to come together and support each other.
She said those who were well-resourced could choose a family or community to provide them with toilet facilities as their contribution to end open defecation in the communities.
GNA