Some three non-governmental organizations have organised COVID-19 sensitization for some communities in the Ashanti, Eastern and Volta Regions.
The NGOs namely; Ensign College of Public Health (ECOPH), Engage Now Africa (ENA) and Health 2 Go (H2GO) conducted the exercise in six selected communities in the aforementioned regions.
They also donated 4,000 pieces of face masks and public education materials on adherence to COVID-19 preventive protocols to members of the communities they visited to help fight COVID-19.
The exercise was dubbed “COVID-19 Behavioural Change Project”.
The people of Mafi-Dove, a community in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region; Sewaba in the Asokore Mampong Municipality and H2GO communities of the Atwima Nwabiagya North district; Suhum Niifio in the Suhum Municipal of the Eastern Region were part of the areas that benefitted from the project on August 6, 2020.
The exercise was aimed at educating community members on COVID-19 and the need for adherence to the safety guidelines.
Since the first two cases were recorded in Ghana on March 12th,2020, the cases have increased to over 41,000 with 215 deaths.
Madam Cecilia Amankwah, the Country Director of Engage Now Africa (ENA), disclosed that, the NGOs embarked on the project following a survey which showed that there were so many things the people were not aware of with regards to COVID-19.
She added that, they will keep coming to the community and their resident-based facilitators would be around to continue to sensitize the community members to keep encouraging them to continue to practice the protocols in order to stay alive.
“We want them to know that we love them. COVID-19 is real; it’s really killing a lot of people and affecting people’s economic activities and other things. So we want you to take the virus very seriously and protect yourselves from it by observing the protocols,” she added.
Dr. Edward Kofi Sutherland, the Medical Director and Faculty at the Ensign College of Public Health (ECOPH), mentioned that, their coming into the communities was to make the people aware of the need for a behavioural change as a necessary tool in curtailing the spread and the ravaging effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said that COVID-19 has thrown the whole world out of gear and that there are ways to prevent the virus from spreading widely.
Observing the necessary protocols such as the washing of hands under running water regularly, applying alcohol-based sanitizers to hands, wearing of nose masks, practising social distancing, no shaking of hands among others he said were part of efforts to stop the further spread of the virus.
Dr. Reuben Esena, another faculty member of Ensign College of Public Health (ECOPH), during his presentation, said the novel Coronavirus has had a serious adverse effect on the economy, social life and everything, so constant education must be going on, especially in the rural areas, for people to know that the disease is not something to be taken so lightly, rather with all the seriousness it deserves.
After the education, the participants were given nose masks, flyers, posters among other materials to help fight against the virus.
Receiving the items, Moses Kwasi Awukuvi Danyevor, the Assembly Member of Mafi-Dove Electoral Area, thanked the organizers for their kind gesture and promised to join hands with them to fight against the Coronavirus disease.
