The Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) sub-committee of the National Health Emergency Committee (NHEC) together with the Action Against Hunger (AAH) an NGO, concluded a two-day mobilization campaign in rural Gambia from the 16th to the 17th May 2020.
The campaign that targeted district chiefs was held with sessions in Janjanbureh, Central River Region (CRR) and Basse in the Upper River Region (URR) respectively. During the interactive sessions, facilitators from RCCE and AHH assisted the district chiefs in developing community action plans on COVID-19 response at district levels.
The Director of Health Promotion and Education at the Ministry of Health, Mr. Modou Njai, who leads the COVID-19 Risk Communication sub-committee, expressed his gratitude to Action Against Hunger (AAH) for assisting the RCCE in filling this important gap within the national COVID-19 sensitisation mechanism.
District chiefs were very enthusiastic about the campaign and shared ideas on how to effectively reach out to their various localities with COVID-19 messages; such as social distancing, adherence to State of Public Emergency Regulations, community surveillance of the border areas, and immunisation of children against ailments that existed before COVID-19.
The URR Governor Madame Fanta BS Manneh, encouraged participants to map out best practices that can be implemented across the various districts. She decried the unfortunate trend with mothers refusing to take their children for immunisation due to fear and misinformation on COVID-19. She encouraged the district chiefs and the officials of both RCCE and AAH to give priority to the immunisation challenge as accurate sensitisation would save the lives of many lactating mothers who are currently abandoning the health centres.
Action Against Hunger (AAH) is an international humanitarian organisation fighting hunger and its effects in over 50 countries since 1979. For its engagements in The Gambia, AAH runs the “Konkobayo” (drive hunger) project in CRR and URR in addition to the COVID-19 response.
