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Queenmothers offer to support fight against COVID-19

Queenmothers in the country are seeking collaboration with the government to scale-up the ongoing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in their respective traditional areas.

Under a national association called ‘Queen mothers Platform Ghana’, they are offering to help increase community sensitisation, reduce stigmatisation, make contact tracing easier, amongst others.

In line with this, a five-member delegation from the group’s national council yesterday paid a courtesy call on the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development , Hajia Alima Mahama in Accra.

The visit was to offer them an opportunity to present their five-point strategy for the proposed partnership to the minister as well as formally introduce the group which was created last year, to her.

Nana Amponsah Dokua III, President of the Queenmothers Council and Paramount Queenmother of Osudoku traditional area said their desire was fuelled by the need to bring their authority in the community to bear on the fight.

She explained that in their respective traditional areas, they were able to organise residents for important projects and that if they partnered with the government, they could help keep residents informed and complaint to safety protocols.

She said they would want to be involved in various COVID-19 stakeholder meetings so they could contribute to deliberations, saying “there are many ideas we can bring on board.”

Nana Dokua said they had already started with some form of awareness creation to erase doubts in the minds of some people that the disease did not exist in addition to the distribution of hand hygiene materials and face masks.

On her part, Hajia Mahama, applauded the traditional leaders for rising up to the occasion and offering to help bring the pandemic under control in their traditional areas.

She promised to forward their proposal to the national COVID-19 task for possible integration to the larger strategy as well as find other avenues to make use of their ingenuity.

She urged the public to adhere to all the measures outlined by the government so that the country would defeat the virus soon, promising that the government, would do its part to end the spread of COVID-19.

To support ongoing activities of the traditional leaders, the ministry in collaboration with the Office of the District Assembly Common Fund donated some quantities of hand sanitisers, facemasks and thermometer guns to them.

She pledged to give the association 10,000 pieces of hand sanitisers and 20,000 pieces of face masks in the coming days for onward distribution to the people in the 10 traditional regions.

BY JONATHAN DONKOR

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