The Mankessim Programme Area of Plan Ghana has marked the Global Hand Washing Day with a call on Ghanaians to take their health into their own hands by observing good hygienic practices.
October 15 is observed as Global Hand Washing Day.
The theme for this year's celebration of the day is: "Saving Lives through Hand Washing with Soap."
Mr Suleman Gbana, the Programme Area Manager, who made the call, said simple hygienic practices such as washing hands with soap after visiting the toilet, changing a child's diapers, attending to the sick or the dead, dressing a sore or a cut and after hand shakes at public gatherings could protect us from contacting diseases.
Addressing a durbar at Ekumfi Eyisam in the Mfantseman Municipality, to mark the day, Mr Gbana noted with concern the preference of most Ghanaians to wash their hands with soap only after eating but to just dip their hands into ordinary water before eating.
He urged those who do not eat with cutlery to take time to wash their hands with soap, no matter how hungry they felt, to ensure that any germ on their hands is disposed off.
The Manager said a survey conducted revealed that less than three per cent of mothers in Ghana washed their hands with soap after disposing off their children's faeces whilst less than 50 per cent Ghanaians washed their hands with soap. Also, about 80 per cent of food vendors serve food with their bare hands.
Mr Gbana appealed to government officials, teachers, churches and mosques to lead the campaign on hand washing with soap at public gatherings to make the people to cultivate it as a habit to be practiced at all times.
Mr Joseph William Etuah, Water and Sanitation Agency Desk Officer, at the Mfantseman Municipal Assembly, described hand washing with soap as the first line of defence against the spread of many illnesses from common cold to serious ailments such as meningitis, bronchitis, influenza, hepatitis 'A' and most types of infectious diarrhoea such as cholera, H1N1 and typhoid.
He said records indicated that more than 3.5 million children under five years die every year through diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections in the world.
"This figure could be reduced drastically if hand washing with soap is widely practiced," he stated.
Mr Etuah, who is also the Municipal Budget Analyst, advised people in communities where it is difficult to access clean water to use soap and any water available or a product which contains at least 60 per cent of alcohol to clean hands.
He advised farmers who could not carry soap to farm to use water and ash for washing their hands.
He called on Ghanaians, especially school children, to boycott food served by vendors with bare hands.
Mr Etuah pointed out that if the exercise is well embraced in the country it could make a significant contribution to the meeting of the Millennium Development Goal Five, which aims at reducing infant mortality among children under-five years by two-thirds, by 2015.
Ms Rose Otoo from the Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Office cautioned passengers from eating on vehicles where water and soap might not be available for hand washing.
Plan Ghana is a child centred non-governmental organization.