By Ojomo, Olusegun Adebambo
At a recently concluded event by WaterAid Nigeria in conjunction with WaterAid West Africa Region and WaterAid UK Programme Support Unit (PSU), participants were stunned and held spellbound by the virility and brilliance with which the United Kingdom based Senior Wash Manager-Hygiene, Dr. Om Prasad Gautam convened the five-day meeting as a major resource person.
Starting from 8th August, all through till 12th August, Gautam was overally speechful and on his feet delivering what he had professionally mastered.
Although the bulk of the resource deliveries at the occasion were expected and detailed to be shared between Gautam and the Regional Technical Adviser, West Africa Region, Engr. Samson Tettey, the former seemed to have been fully prepared to go it singly.
But Tettey demonstrated his professional prowess too by periodic interjections into the process and also deep involvement in the practical training of participants…..
The first two days of the process centred on “Technical Training on Hygiene Behaviour Change” while the subsequent three days were for the “Creative Process to Design Hygiene Intervention Package”.
The main purpose of the workshop was to deepen the understanding of all participating stakeholders on the importance of hygiene behaviour change and the fundamentality of achieving its multiple development goals. It also included enumerating, studying and analysing what is working and not working to effect hygiene behaviour change before ultimately designing a package that would sensitise the populace and ultimately achieve the much needed change.
Participation at the workshop included a sizeable number of WaterAid staff members; non-government organisations, government officials at federal, state and local council levels; medical personnel; teachers; journalists and people living with disabilities.