In furtherance of the fight against COVID-19 in Rivers State, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) selected in the pilot scheme to promote Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area in the state, say their target is to scale up the awareness campaign on the disease to avert community spread.
Making this known recently, during the flag-off ceremony of CSOs Community Sensitisation and Engagement at the headquarters of Obio/Akpor LGA, the coordinator, Civil Societies Responses in Rivers State, Amb Emmanuel Nweke, said the CSOs will engage the youth and women leaders, various stakeholders, including the divisional police officer (DPO) and councillors who would assemble their people to intensify the compliance message in their domain.
”We have three models we are operating which have to do with awareness creation, checking of compliance level, and enforcement. But as a civil society organisation, we are not part of the enforcement, the state and LGAs ensure enforcement, he said”.
He assured the chairman of the LGA, Hon Solomon Eke, and the Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) team of their determination to achieve a successful ward-to-ward campaign in the designated area of the 17 wards in the LGA.
“We promise to do a very good job considering your doggedness and commitment as a grassroots man who is concerned about the development of your people. Ours is to assist your LGA fight the virus headlong in such a way that history and Rivers people would remember your efforts during this pandemic”, he stated.
Earlier in his opening remark, the leader of the RCCE delegation, who is also the general manager of the State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), Mr Napoleon Adah, stated that the NGOs selected for the scheme are made up of “seasoned professionals who are rooted in sensitization and other issues involving saving people’s lives like this pandemic”.
While thanking UNICEF for giving technical support, and the state government through the Inter-Ministerial Committee for working relentlessly to check the virus in the state, the RUWASSA boss called on other LG chairmen in the state to borrow a leaf from the Obio/Akpor chairman’s efforts in the fight against COVID-19, saying that “with collective synergy, the pandemic would be a thing of the past in the state”.
On her part, the UNICEF consultant on Communication for Development, Mrs Glory Odu-Oji, stressed on the need for sustainability of the programme, adding that people should begin to plan for their lives after COVID-19. This, she said, can be done by “taking responsibility to curb the spread of the dreaded virus”.
In his response, Eke assured the RCCE team of adequate security to facilitate their operations, adding that his council “is open to partnership with any groups or individuals to eradicate the disease in the area”.
The CSOs selected for the community engagement are: Inter-Faith Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Pius Dukor Foundation, Civil Society Response Team on COVID-19, and Faith for Life Technical Working Group (Christian Association of Nigeria).
