KARONGI – Environmental Health Officials (EHO) from all the seven districts of the Western Province, yesterday, started a week-long retreat aimed at creating awareness in health inspection.

The retreat is organized by the Environmental Health Department of the Ministry of Health.

Philbert Ciza, in charge of health inspection at the ministry, said the campaign is meant to enable environmental health officers to adopt a uniform way of collecting data and compiling performance reports.

"At the end of the day, we expect to equip participants with basic standard skills and techniques to help in the harmonization of their work,” Ciza told The New Times in an interview.

He explained that some of the specific points of discussion include food inspection, monitoring of hospitality premises and public places such as schools, hospitals and health centres.

"The health campaign at the local level requires collective efforts and most of our partners lack basic skills,” Mathias Ngerargeze, an EHO at Shyira Hospital in Nyabihu District noted.

He said that since health inspectors directly deal with the general public, the acquired techniques will help improve the health standards of Rwandans in general.

In a related development, a public campaign also aimed at creating awareness about proper waste management while conserving environmental health, also got underway in Karongi.

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