European Union, Group To Stop Cholera-Related Deaths In FCT

The European Union funded Agents for Citizen-Driven Transformation Programme implemented by the British Council and Community Based Initiative for Growth and Sustainability (C-BIGS) have intensified efforts to stop cholera spread in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.

The programme focused on improving sanitation and hygene practices in Zuba and Pyakassa Communities in the FCT.

Speaking in Abuja at a ceremony to mark the end of the project, the EU focal person for the project Seyi Tetteh said there has been remarkable improvement on sanitation and cholera concerns since the project took off in the two communities.

“Prior to the support, there were 82 reported cases of cholera in Zuba community, before the interventions, but today, there has been no reports of cholera in the Community. The project is for six months.

“The truth is that they have made a difference in the two project communities – that is Zuba and Pyakassa.

“They sensitized the communities on better hygiene practices on how to prevent open defecation, and made them realize how their hygiene practices affect their health,” she said.

While giving further insights into the project she said, “We are institutional capacity strengthening programme. We are providing that institutional capacity programme for over 200 civil society programmes in 10 states.

“C-BIGS is one of our project partners in FCT that we provided capacity support to them in different areas such as monitoring and evaluation, project cycle and management.

“It is an organisation that has been working in an area of Water, Sanitation and Hygene-WASH,which is an important issue.”

In her remarks, the Executive Director for C- BIGS, Seyi Olagundoye said improving water sanitation and hygiene practices in communities in North-Central is a key thematic area that is being focused on.

“Last year, with the outbreak of cholera, we could not overlook the fact that this is an area we could step in, which is a pandemic. We felt the responsibility to create awareness in water safety.

“We helped household to improve on their sanitation practices as most of our findings show the spread of cholera is as a result of contaminated water.

“The project does not have timeline but we trained the community so that they take up from where we stopped.”