The Regional Youth Committee (RYC) of Lower River Region has Monday launched a one-month borderline community sensitization campaign and distribution of 35 handwashing materials as part of their efforts to fight against COVID19.
Funded by the IMVF project and National Youth Council, the campaign will cover 36 villages along the borderline of the region.
Saikou Darboe, Youth Chairperson, RYC, said the objective of the campaign is to refresh the minds of people on the issues and preventative measures of COVID19.
“Our focus is on the borderline communities; because we still have intruders and our young people and borderline communities are very vulnerable when it comes to contacting the virus,” he said.
He said the campaign team will visit and distribute 35 handwashing basins with detergents to 36 communities and also collect data to know the number of people and households leaving in the area and some of their challenges.
“This will help us to gather correct data that we can provide to the authorities for further decision-making purposes,” he explained.
Landing B Sanneh, Chairperson, Mansakonko Area Council, said COVID19 goes beyond health it’s multifaceted and touches on a lot of areas apart from the health sector.
“We all know how much impact COVID19 has on our lives in general from; socio-economic, cultural, and political aspects all are affected. As we go out to give information we must convince people to feel part of the issues of COVID19,” he said.
He added: “We must not confine ourselves to issues relating to only health, we must able to make them understand that apart from health, COVID19 can affect their lives, so they will not feel relaxed to contribute to the fight against the virus.”
According to him, if you relate it to their lives and the impact of COVID19 on their social, economic, cultural, and political lives in one way or the other they will feel affected by COVID19 even due they may not be infected and will encourage them to join the fight.
“The information must be devised and must be simple as possible and we must understand our target level of understanding so we can transmit the relevant information we want to give to them,” he advised.
Responsible leadership
He said they (authorities) in the region appreciate and recognized the move or gesture of young people it goes to show how much responsible leadership is especially when it comes to youth.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about youth that they are lazy and not ready to work and take up responsibility in term of the development of their country and communities, but this show how responsible our youth are particularly the regional youth structures and ministry of youth and sports,” he said.
Goes beyond talking
“As the young people of the country it goes beyond more than only talking we have to commit ourselves to actions, we have long been talking it’s now time to come up with initiatives like this, keep on doing it more and more,” he challenged young people.
He assured them of his office and local authorities’ support at all times. “As local government authorities we will stand by you and support you as much as possible for you to delivered most especially working with the communities,” he said.
Gibril Sanneh, rep. regional directorate of Health, LRR said COVID19 is a health problem but the ministry of health alone cannot handle, its global problem that needs a global solution.
He added that the Ministry of Health alone cannot do much about COVID19, all other organizations and institutions have a role to play in combating the virus in the country.
He added that the ministry is doing all it can to control the spread of the virus, saying currently the country registered 25 cases and the majority of whom recovered.
“COVID19 is a problem for everyone; this is why it needs everyone’s effort to curb the transmission. Hand washing is one key action that can stop the spread of the virus and prevent people from contracting it,” he said.
He added that LRR is yet to register any COVID19 case, even due they have some suspected cases before but they all later tested negative of the virus. “We are still virus-free. This is why a lot more needs to be done to maintain the momentum.”
Alagie Jatta, rep. of the Governor, LRR, commended IMVF for the support, saying the materials are the first aid for the fight against COVID19 and without it will be difficult to win the fight against it.
Momodou BK. Ceesay, National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), said COVID19 is beyond the capacity of one institution, therefore it required all hands to be on deck to fight the virus.
He said: “Yes, we have the medical part that the Ministry of Health is responsible, but we also have the social part as well that has to do with the society the way we interact and do things. There is a lot of energy that is invested in the social aspect of the fight against the virus.”
“Going to our boarder villages to sensitize them on the dangers of COVID19 the preventative measure is very vital to the fight against the virus, knowing very well how vulnerable the border villages are.”
He challenged all partners to put a hand on the desk and encourage others to come and support. LRR is vulnerable not because of its poorest border but has an international corridor, trans-Gambia corridor and it has the potential to attract COVID19.