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news: Environmental Groups aid Sanitation for Buduburam The financial and educational assistance of two environmental groups, Clean Up the World (CUW) and Earth Day Network (EDN), helped residents of the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana’s central region to understand the importance of improving their drainage and toilet system in the community. The drainage and toilet system are a longstanding problem at Buduburam. Only two years ago, the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, built some pit latrines to help reduce the use of open fields and unfinished houses for toilets. However, residents must pay a fee to use the latrines. Because of this, Erica Wisseh, a community coordinator and a resident said, “The toilets are abandoned due to lack of care coupled with fees charged which residents can’t afford”. As a result, residents have resorted once again to using open fields and dilapidated houses to defecate. This activity poses health risks to the residents, particularly to the children, informed Ms. Wisseh. She also said that the lack of awareness and education about environmental and public health issues is one of the reasons why people do not take care of their surroundings. In 2004, MOPGEL joined Clean Up the World (CUW), an Australian organization, which inspires people and organizations to clean up and fix up leading to these ongoing environmental activities. CUW provided educational materials for training and workshops.
With this assistance, MOPGEL volunteers embarked on a number of activities held on the first and last Saturday of each month aimed at increasing the understanding and capacity of residents to keep their environment protected and clean. In 2007, Earth Day Network (EDN), a United States based NGO, provided a $1000.00 grant to MOPGEL to assist their efforts with an official launching of an environmental and sanitation campaign named, “Clean up and fix up Buduburam”. In April 2007, with the funding provided by EDN and the continued educational materials provided by CUW, MOPGEL conducted educational workshops where they provided food for the volunteers. They also purchased trees to plant at the camp and other cleanup materials. The volunteers then launched a two day work party to clean the camp and plant the trees. The campaign brought together 24 local volunteers drawn from the 12 zones of the refugee camp, six staff members from MOPGEL, and 30 community members from the Sanitation Department of the Liberian Refugee Welfare Council. These activities not only improved camp conditions, but also served to awaken the spirit of volunteerism that is not a common concept among Liberians. |
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