No fewer than 20  residents of Orisunmibare community in Apapa Igammu LCDA in Lagos State have benefited from a week-long training organised by Phosgard Fumigant Ltd.
The exercise was on how they could keep their environments free from rodents and rats that usually cause Lassa Fever when they had contact with foodstuffs and consumed by human beings.
The Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Mr Oluwasegun Benson, newsmen in Lagos said that the gesture was part of its social  corporate responsibility (CSR) to the community.
Reports that Orisunmibare is a low income community  and a slum that  lacks  healthcare facilities, portable  water,and  public  toilets.
Benson said the aim of the training was to encourage the residents of the area on how they could keep  their environments clean and free from rodents, rats  and diseases that could endanger their lives, especially, women and children.
“The vector control training for the community is an  initiative launched by Governor  Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos  State to forestall an  outbreak of vector-borne disease in our community.
“The community was identified as a black spot for the  spread of diseases due to the relatively low hygiene practice  there,” he said.
Benson also advised  other lcdas in the state with  similar challenges  to take advantage of the governor’s initiative to key-in into the  programme.
He said such communities could send their  representatives  to undergo the training, adding that if well utilised, it could bridge  the  unemployment gap in the state.
Benson said that  communities  with vector-borne challenges should send their volunteers for training at their   Local Council  Development Areas (lcdas).
“Such volunteers can  be youths that will be trained in basic pesticide safety and its application by  the Environmental Health Officers (ehos),”he said.
Reports  that the organisation donated a pesticide storage tank and six knapsack sprayers to the community.