In order to beef up its awareness crusade on the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging the globe, ActionAid Nigeria has said that it targets to reach over 36,000 community inhabitants in its SARVE 11 project communities.
The project targets especially the most vulnerable, while prioritising women, children nursing mothers and the elderly.
Against this backdrop, ActionAid Nigeria has embarked on strengthening of rural community groups against Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) through awareness creation and sensitisation campaigns with a commitment to cover over 36,000 inhabitants in Kogi State.
ActionAid Resilience Programmes Coordinator , Anicetus Atakpu , disclosed this at a Door-to-Door COVID-19 Precautionary Awareness Campaign and strengthening of Community facilitators in Koton-Karfe community, Kogi-KK Local Government over the weekend.
He said that although there was no recorded positive case of COVID-19 in Kogi at the moment, ActionAid had continued its public awareness campaign and sensitisation at the grassroots in the state in view of the daily increase in the number of cases across the country.
He added that the programme was in pursuance of the System And Structure Strengthening Approach Against Radicalization to Violent Extremism (SARVE II) Project being implemented in Kogi and Nasarawa States and funded by Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF).
“A week ago, when the sensitisation campaign was launched in Kogi State, ActionAid Nigeria identified huge gaps of misinformation, misconceptions and lack of preparedness by community groups and members,” he said.
“This informed her decision to commence an awareness campaign as a way of complementing the state
government’s efforts especially as some hoodlums have leveraged on the situation to perpetuate violence in communities across the country”.
He explained that ActionAid Nigeria is taking a proactive step in this regard to ensure that residents of Kogi state, particularly its project beneficiaries are properly sensitised, informed and
united to prevent and combat the deadly coronavirus.
The Coordinator disclosed that ActionAid in collaboration with Participation Initiative for Behavioural Change in Development (PIBCID) had engaged community facilitators and established Community Action and Response Teams (CART) members to reach out to the communities.
“Our target is to reach over 36,000 community inhabitants
especially our SARVE II project communities and the most vulnerable, while prioritising women, children, nursing mothers and the elderly”.
In the same vein Halima Saqid , Executive Director , PIBCID, ActionAid local rights partners in Kogi , urged the facilitators to promote hand washing and other hygiene practices, using their local dialects in their door-to-door community engagement.
While debunking wrong massages and myths around the virus, she emphasised that Covid -19 was no respecter of persons , not a rich man’s disease, neither can it be cured through drinking games of dry fin (Ogogoro) and alcohol.
Also speaking, the Monarch of Koton-Karfe, Abdulrazaq Isa-Koto who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Adamu Wokili, promised to ensure that the sensitisation and awareness campaign will be spread across his subjects.
“So far, God has prevented the virus from coming to Kogi State and we pray Him to wipe it out of the country (Nigeria).”
