By Samuel Akumatey
Akatsi (V/R), Oct. 18, GNA – Members of faith-based organisations have been advised to balance their spiritual purity with physical cleanliness, to achieve wholesome lives.
Pastor Alexander Kwadzo Agbozo, the District Pastor for the Church of Pentecost in Akatsi, who gave the advice, said Christians must dwell on sanitation, health, and hygiene as they pursued spiritual sanctification.
He was addressing a national event at the Tatorme Assembly of the Church, to mark the Global Handwashing Day and quoted several biblical passages and rites to back the call for good sanitation.
Pastor Agbozo said there were several biblical quotations that expressed the importance of cleanliness as fundamental in establishing holiness in the church community, and cited some as circumcision, hand washing, washing of foodstuffs and bathing, as acts of hygienic practices in the Bible.
He explained that the Christian life itself begun with washing, of which sin, was associated with a life of uncleanliness, while redemption was seen as clean.
“Believers should therefore balance spiritual sanitation with actual sanitation,” calling upon the Church to consider the annual activity theme: “Clean Hands are Within Reach,” on the as very important to ensuring good health and national development.
Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister, in his keynote address, noted that churches were powerful channels through which people could be transformed.
He said massive transformation was important because, despite the wide acceptance of hand washing during the COVID-19 pandemic, only 48 per cent of Ghanaians maintained the practice as stipulated by WHO.
He said currently there were several schools with no handwashing facilities, and that continued to impact negatively on efforts towards ensuring widespread sanitation.
Dr Letsa said every citizen had a role to play in the promotion of hygiene and should discourage activities such as the display of foodstuff on the floor and use of bare hands to handle cooked meals.
He emphasised that promoting health was one of the important steps towards development and quality life.
The Regional Minister urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, traditional authorities, Churches, and school authorities, to consider the establishment of accessible and appropriate wash facilities, the promotion of effective and inclusive wash behaviour change, and to ensure the practice was recognised as critical to health and development.
Dr Worlanyo Siabi, the Chief Executive of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), said the risk of contamination from all kinds of germs remained high and that proper hand washing was the only way out of the risk of faecal matter poisoning.
He said the Agency continued to provide quality water for communities hitherto underserved and the Akatsi community would soon benefit from an ongoing water supply system at Adidome.
He commended the Church for embracing the hygiene campaign, saying imbibing sanitation in the young ones would help develop habits that would benefit generations to come.
The Satotap, an innovative potable handwashing device was distributed among the congregants who were later taught how to use them.
Mrs Theodora Adomako-Adjei, the Extension Services Coordinator of the CSWA who led the demonstration of the satotap, said religious leaders were considered as key influencers, which was the reason for the choice of the celebrations with the church.
She commended the various partners including UNICEF, Water Aid, World Vision, Plan Ghana, World Bank, Zoomlion Foundation, and the Church of Christ for their support.
GNA