By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The management of DICOVERC Kenema district has cautioned heads of Bondo society that initiate girls into the rites of the Bondo society in the district to comply with the covid-19 regulations in a bid to combat the pandemic in the district.
Addressing the women heads of Bondo known as Soweis at DICOVERC office on the 23rd August 2021, the head of Social Mobilization Pillar DICOVERC Kenema, Ansumana Benson Quee said the government has slammed a ban on all secret societies to curtail the transmission of corona virus in the country but said they have been getting information recently indicating that some secret initiation of girls into the Bondo society have been taking place.
He said it’s against such a worrisome development that they as DICOVERC through the social mobilization wing decided to engage the soweis and remind them of the ban on all societal activities.
Quee stated that with the recent announcement of enough Covid vaccine in the country, DICOVERC would want to encourage the soweis to get their women membership vaccinated.
He stated that from data collected, more men have been vaccinated than women and that government will only consider relaxing some of the covid-19 regulations if more people got vaccinated.
He was of the opinion that DICOVERC in the district will not succeed in the covid-19 fight without the full cooperation of women who form a greater percentage of the country’s population.
He also spoke of concerns by soweis about a woman called Neneh whom they alleged had been going around wrongly accusing the soweis of undertaking activities contrary to the regulations of the pandemic. The regional Assistant Director in the Ministry of Social Welfare, Haja Alice Jeneba Koroma said at this time women should allow their children to go to school instead of FGM. ‘’I will not support anybody that will try to undermine government law for any initiation at this time when there is a ban on all social activities,” she said.
In her statement, The Vice President of the National Soweis Association Elsie Kondolomoh said as women, they were happy for the meeting called by DiCOVERC but also criticized Neneh for going about discussing Bondo issues with non-initiates.
She also suggested that DICOVERC establish mobile vaccination units because of the lot of time the women spend at the Kenema Government hospital to get vaccinated.
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