The Eastern Regional office of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has launched the phase three of its awareness campaign on COVID-19 in the month of August.
It is being supported by the COVID-19 Fund at the Office of the President, and in June it received four vehicles for the campaign in the region.
Speaking to Ghanaian Times on the campaign, the Regional Director of NCCE, Alex Sackey, revealed that during the first two phases of the campaign in the Eastern Region, a total of 5,176 activities were carried out but the last phase was targeting more than 3,000 activities.
He mentioned some of the activities as embarking on at least twenty days of intensive public education and sensitisation, dawn and dusk broadcasts and announcements, engagements with identifiable groups, radio and TV programmes, and also through the medium of the local information centres.
Dilating on the content, Mr Sackey explained that “the goal of the campaign is to deepen public awareness on prevention and management of COVID-19 pandemic including government measures and directives, growing challenge of stigmatisation and need for the citizenry to adopt healthy lifestyles.
“Some of the issues to be addressed in the third phase will be on intensive public education and sensitisation, existence of virus, symptoms, mode of transmission, management of spread through good personal hygiene and safety protocols, busting of myths, stigmatisation compliance, good nutrition for strong immune system, adherence to approved protocols on mask production, handling, usage, and penalties accompanying related offences,” he said.
Mr Sackey noted that the first two phases were very successful except for unwillingness of some of the citizenry to comply with basic protocols like wearing of nose masks and social distancing, but with intensity of education, sensitisation and enforcement, Ghanaians would survive.
“Some of the people who did not accept existence of the virus were bold enough to challenge officers on the field to provide evidence of death from the virus, it was unfortunate and we need to sustain our education and sensitisation,” he stated.
The Regional Director was confident that with ongoing collaboration with Ghana Health Service, Information Service Department, traditional authorities, district assemblies, and other stakeholders, the war on COVID-19 would be won.
By Samuel Opare Lartey
