School kids in the Upper West Region have embarked on a peaceful demonstration in a street march to express their displeasure about waste and filth that has engulfed their communities in a campaign dubbed Action for Clean Communities.
Drawn from several schools in the Region the kids undertook the peaceful demonstration on some principal streets in the Wa township, carrying placards and dancing to brass band music to carry home their message of keeping a clean environment to residents and on-lookers who came out to catch a glimpse of them.
The programme was held under the auspices of Info Radio, THEI International, the Upper West Regional Library and other foreign partners.
The banner carried by the children read messages such as PLASTIC WASTE is equal to death!, causes more harm than good!; kills our nature; SAY NO TO poly-bags!, plastic bags!, one-way plastic packaging!; SAY YES TO a clean community!, the enforcement of sanitation laws!
In an address , the manager for Info Radio, Mr. Gabriel Mwini said the programme started as a result of a children’s programme on Info Radio called 'Children’s World' where children expressed the challenges they face at home where most of them expressed sanitation issues as a major problem in their communities .
This is what has made children from all over the Region to embark on this protest so that community leaders and responsible agencies deal with the problem.
He has also promised that Info Radio will continue to support these children in embarking on important projects such as the Action for Clean Communities Project.
“The children want to protest against the indiscriminate disposal of waste to draw the attention of stakeholders like the Municipal Assembly, Municipal Environmental Health and Sanitation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency to take action so that this bad sanitation situation will reduce”, Mr Mwini explained.
Some of the children said they embarked on the protest because their surroundings are not kept clean, they also said they hope the demonstration will go a long way to create awareness and also sensitize the community members to keep the environment clean.