Ogunsina Oluwaseun is a Community Informant in the Akoka-Anuoluwapo ward in Somolu area of Lagos State. She believes in the power of education and awareness to break the chain of infectious disease spread.

Through her engagement with DRASA in the SCKaR-IDP initiative, she has adopted new practices and behaviors, which she shares with her family and neighbors to help reduce the spread of infectious diseases.

Read her interview to learn about her visit to a riverine community in her area, where she educated residents about infectious diseases.

What are some of the new skills or things you learned?
I have learned about personal and environmental hygiene and have since incorporated what I have learned to my family, neighbors, and other people. Whenever I go to a healthcare centre to access care and I see a place they put a veronica bucket or a tap, I always make sure to go there to wash my hands; even when I get home, I do the same thing. Especially with the outbreak of cholera, measles, and other diseases in our community.

Can you share a specific example of something you did in your community to spread the word about staying healthy after you became a Health Champion?
There is a ward in Bariga, it is a riverine area. If you go there, you will know that they do not know much about hygiene. So most times, we go there to educate them. They also have some schools there and some places where they put some children and take care of them. We go there to educate them on environmental cleanliness and other hygiene practices. The environment is very dirty and has faecal matter disposed carelessly there, and these people eat and sleep there. After educating them, we left and came back a month later and saw that they had improved to some extent. Although it was not perfect, it was better than what we had initially met. Even amongst my neighbors, the way they used to pack their dirt before, they would wait for the state waste disposal officers to come before packing their dirt properly. We taught them about waste management to avoid environmental pollution, and they have improved on it.

What changes have you noticed around you since you started sharing what you learned?
Yes, the environment where we went to at the riverine area is now cleaner, and waste management has improved in my neighbourhood.

What challenges have you faced while trying to use what you learned in the community, and how did you handle these challenges that made reception easier?
Whenever we go to some areas to educate them about health, they start asking us if we brought food for them. Some will not even give you listening ears. We usually try to advise them that everything is not about money and that even knowing about environmental hygiene and personal hygiene can prevent them from spending money they could have avoided spending because of lack of knowledge. We also help them to understand that they spend even more when they fall sick with these diseases because they are unaware of how to prevent them.

In the future, what role would you like to play in keeping your community safe, and what would you like to see differently in your community when it comes to staying healthy?
If I am given the opportunity, I would not mind educating people through the media about the prevention of diseases because I know that prevention is better than cure.

Click this link to learn more about the SCKaR-IDP project.