COVID-19: NGO takes sensitisation to rural localities

The Tabitha Cumi Foundation (TCF) and ECOSTAT, a project under the Mercy Corps have taken sensitisation campaign against COVID-19 to some communities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The Executive Director, Tabitha Cumi, Mrs Adetayo Erinle, who led the team for the sensitisation to Gafere community in Kuje area council, Jibi and Mapa in Bwari […]

The Tabitha Cumi Foundation (TCF) and ECOSTAT, a project under the Mercy Corps have taken sensitisation campaign against COVID-19 to some communities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Executive Director, Tabitha Cumi, Mrs Adetayo Erinle, who led the team for the sensitisation to Gafere community in Kuje area council, Jibi and Mapa in Bwari area council in the FCT, said community sensitisation is necessary to contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

“Not many people at the community level are aware. Those that have heard of it think that it is a rich man’s sickness, while some also think if it comes, they can use local herbs to take care of it because they use local herbs for any ailment,” she said.

She added that a lot of sensitisation is ongoing on radio, on TV, on social media, and a greater percentage of the rural people do not have access to any of these media channels.

Mrs Erinle also said: “We have a major problem in the communities; they live so close to each other and so we thought that if we do not sensitise them, we will be doing a disservice to them.

“Many of them have no idea of what it is, and those that are aware thought it is a rich man’s disease. But many of them come to town to work and so they can actually get it from somebody in town and this virus spreads so fast that if we do not teach people the basic preventive measures, we have a big problem on our hands as a nation. This sensitisation is a way of contributing our own quota in letting the people know how to go about their lives and stay safe,” she said.

Mrs Erinle expressed concern over the lack of health facilities in the rural areas, saying if there was an infection in any community, it would spell doom for the people.

The Programme coordinator of ECOSTAT, Mercy Corps, Maureen London, while speaking to the representatives of the communities, said they were there to create awareness on the new disease.

“We are here to enlighten you so that you can take the message back to your communities and spread across. We cannot bring everybody here because one of the measures to stay safe is social distancing. We want to teach you the steps to take to stay safe and how to make your own face masks for individual and family use,” she said.

A member of the team taught the women, who were seated apart from each other, how to also make their own face masks.

Only 15 members of the community were invited, among whom were the village head, women leader, youth leader, the chief imam and a pastor.  The representatives would take the message to other members of the community.

They were taught hand washing with soap, application of sanitizer, and were advised against hugging, shaking of hands and others. Each representative was given soap and hand sanitiser to go and share with others.

The head of Gafere community, Chief Peter Kaka, said they have heard of the virus but they were not aware of the measures that they were taught.

He promised that he would ensure that his subjects adhere to every instruction given while applauding the foundation for donating banners where the tips were written and interpreted in Hausa so that people could read and understand.