I played my part
I then went on to interact with the business community. The goal was to encourage them to put hand washing facilities at their premises. It worked. Every day I took note of how many people I had talked to and by the end of the week, it was over 350 people.
For the two decades that I have been alive, I haven’t seen anything quite as scary. It has been a time of global panic, with thousands of people dying on a daily. I have seen many nations struggling to figure out how to help their people, while others have been left with nothing but hope for a better day.
Despite this, most of the people in Zombo District, where I live, didn’t seem bothered by the news of the virus. I didn’t really see anyone going out of their way to follow the guidelines issued by our health ministry.
In fact, by mid-April, people still gathered in groups; the streets were busy, markets still operated normally, children continued to play together and there was no observation of social distance at all.
While this might have looked like negligence at first, I soon noticed that it was more about ignorance. There was an information gap in my community. If they knew anything about the coronavirus, it had to be very little, or worse, mythical. I knew then I had to do something. I couldn’t just sit there and watch passively. No way! I took action.
I started a one-week sensitisation campaign in my neighborhood. I went door to door, met and interacted with the youth, children, elders and women, all the while emphasizing prevention. Many people were amazed, the local leaders joined my campaign and together we instantly noticed a change in behavior.
I then went on to interact with the business community. The goal was to encourage them to put hand washing facilities at their premises. It worked. Every day I took note of how many people I had talked to and by the end of the week, it was over 350 people.
Even better, by that end of that very week, over fifteen households had hand washing facilities. I also noticed that the business and or market authorities had started ensuring the prevention guidelines were followed.
To this day, I continue to preach prevention among the illiterate and semi-illiterate homesteads in my area. We all have a part to play, I am glad that I played mine.
By George Abedi
