By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Fifty Youths from different communities in the country have completed two-day training on sustained Ebola social mobilisation, community psychosocial counselling and stigma mitigation.
The training was organised by the Centre for Coordination of Youth Activities (CCYA) and it was convened at the conference hall of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists Headquarters at Campbell Street in Freetown.
The organisers say the training was geared towards ensuring effective media engagement strategy and the provision of psychosocial counselling and livelihood support to Ebola survivors at the community level as the Ebola survivors were going through trauma and other psychological problems. The trainees were drawn from Port Loko District, Western Area Rural and Western Area Urban.
While briefing participants prior to commencement of the training, Ngolo Katta, Executive Director of CCYA, told audience at a brief ceremony that when the epidemic initially erupted in the country, his organisation explored ways the youths would come in to mitigate the impact of Ebola on the lives of victims. Some of the areas identified for the youth intervention in the Ebola eradication campaign, he said, were contact tracing, social mobilisation and burying the Ebola victims.
“During the fight against the Ebola virus, we have mobilised 25,000 youths who are serving as contact tracers, social mobilisers and burial teams,” Mr Katta said. He also reminded the audience that his organisation had experienced situations in which Ebola survivors had infected their marital partners through sex, noting that these survivors had a “cardinal role” to play in the Ebola fight.
The CCYA Director alluded to a study conducted by a consortium of agencies including the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, UNICEF and Focus 1000, a local civil society organisation in which 96% of the respondents mentioned that Ebola victims were not treated well in their communities.
Supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Katta said CCYA had conducted similar training in six districts in the country particularly on community discussions between the youths and their leaders.
“Such trainings have created a synergy between the youths and the leaders and the youths can now speak freely on disease prevention mechanism,” he said. He assured the participants that his organisation would develop an action plan that would ensure that “we drive the issues in the training forward.”
“We believe in working with people who have vision for the country,” he added.
In his contribution, head of the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit in the National Youth Commission, Yusuf Kamara, said psychosocial counselling had to be integrated into the wider system especially in the formal and non-formal education, as well as the health system. As families and communities are best placed to provide support to the people, Kamara urged CCYA to work with them, while acknowledging the fact that this would depend on the available resources.
“As extreme and prolonged stress may lead to depression that would have long impact on people’s lives, we need to work towards community engagement,’’ Kamara said.
As 149 youth councils are currently functional in the country, Kamara said youths were now empowered to participate in community issues and that CCYA must use such “existing structures” while implementing their programmes.
Civil Society Activist, Charles Lahai, reminded the participants of the ‘’devastating nature’’ of the Ebola virus, pointing out the behaviour change communication strategy as employed by CCYA in the prevention of the spread of the virus as the right mechanism. Training the youths in psychosocial counselling for communities affected by Ebola, Lahai said, was a manifestation that CCYA was still making effort in the fight against the Ebola virus in the country.
“The youths should be seen in mitigating or breaking the barriers of stigmatisation of Ebola survivors and to strengthen marriages and family units,” he said. He then urged CCYA to cooperate with local authorities including the police, as well as traditional leaders.
In his keynote address, Coordinator for the National Ebola Response Centre, Steven Ngaoja, said the training of the youths was timely as the country was on the verge of getting to zero. He informed the audience that at the time the Ebola epidemic struck, the country did not have the right infrastructure and that they got it wrong as to how to respond especially in the initial stage.
“We considered the outbreak as purely a medical issue, and today it has become a global security threat,’’ he said. Mr Ngaoja also pointed out misconceptions and mistrust between the people and the authorities as a “hurdle” in the Ebola fight. He spoke about the three-day stay at home in the country between September 19-21 last year, during which some people rejected soap distributed by government on the grounds that the soap was a source of infection with the virus.
These misconceptions, Ngaoja said, would be cleared only through training and community sensitisation.
“Training of psychological counsellors is a step in the right direction,’’ he said. Since the “knowledge gap” is huge as manifested in the Ebola response, he added that more attention would have to be paid to research. He disclosed that since the efficacy of the Ebola vaccine that had been tested in Guinea had been rated at 100%, he said the government was considering the decision to apply it in Sierra Leone. As the NERC Coordinator assured his organisation’s support to the training activities and related programmes of CCYA, he urged the Executive director to appeal to their donors so that the project could be cascaded to all districts in the country.
(C) Politico 11/08/15
