By Yunus S Saliu
In quest for raising awareness on prevention, and against Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy, the National Centre for Arts and Culture has Tuesday officially launched the ECOWAS-UNESCO awareness raising campaign on Covid-19 prevention and against vaccine hesitancy with Gambian artists.
The project under a theme: Keep safe by masking and stay alive by getting vaccinated was organized by the National Centre for Arts and Culture in partnership with the ECOWAS and UNESCO on awareness raising campaign with Gambian artists on Covid-19 prevention, and against vaccine hesitancy.
Speaking on behalf of Honorable Hamat NK Bah, Minister of Tourism and Culture during the launching was Mr Hassoum Ceesay, Director General of NCAC.
He gave a background of the project which the NCAC in March 2021, applied to UNESCO for a support through their raising awareness on prevention, and against Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy project for West Central Africa to enable Gambian artists to contribute to the ongoing mobilization through awareness creation against the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Ceesay expressed NCAC delight over the D500,000.00 grants received from the ECOWAS-UNESCO Anti Covid-19 Campaign Fund for West Africa to work with various artistic associations as well as the press to implement an arts based riposte to the deadly pandemic.
He noted that all the messages from more than a dozen Gambian artists who will participate, and benefit from the activities will be centered on the theme – ‘Keep safe by masking and stay alive by getting vaccinated.’
While applauding the partners, he said, the joint response of ECOWAS and UNESCO to support Member States in mitigating the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic has orchestrated a global campaign of prevention and vaccination. “Therefore, the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) of The Gambia sought support from the ECOWAS-UNESCO initiative toimplement a creative and innovative communication campaign which will contribute to raising awareness on Covid-19 among the communities,” Mr Ceesay pointed out.
He added that the “campaign will be done in Gambian national languages using the talent of Gambian artists.”
He went on that the NCAC will engage the Writers Association of the Gambia; Gambia Theatre Association, Gambia Dance Association, Gambia Film Producers Association, and Gambia Music Union who will task their members to create messages relevant to Covid-19 prevention and vaccination acceptance “operating under the hashtag#ArtsGambiaagainstCovid19, the social media publicity component will be of utmost priority.”
The NCAC Director General added that the activities will run from May 18 through to June 16 2021 when the artistic messages will be ready for consumption by the public through electronic media.
“Our aim is to ensure that Gambia artists have an opportunity to create against Covid-19, and also to earn an income from their creation. There is also a Covid-19 relief component to this activity,” he disclosed.
However, he stated that the project indicates the strong role of government in supporting the arts sector “in late 2020, government gave NCAC to distribute over D5million to artistic associations and individual registered artists and artistic groups as Covid-19 relief to the sector. NCAC also distributed D50,000 to various artistic groups being a donation to the sector from The Gambia Chamber of Commerce.”
On behalf of the Minister of Tourism and Culture, he thanked the partners UNESCO and ECOWAS for what he described as golden opportunity for the artists.
Dr Cherno Omar Barry, president of the Writers’ Association of The Gambia who is also president of the Collecting Society of The Gambia, Mr Malick Jeng, Director General of GRTS, Dr Momodou Gassama of WHO; Mr Solo Sima acting Director General of PURA among others made significant remarks at the launching ceremony of the ECOWAS-UNESCO awareness raising campaign on Covid-19 prevention and against vaccine hesitancy with Gambian artists.