Tasi’u Hassan
Janna Health Foundation Nigeria, under its Community Engagement and Pandemic Preparedness and Response programme (COPPER CE), has advocated for the involvement of more communities in pandemic preparedness activities in Adamawa State.
Joining Jannah Health Foundation in making this call during an advocacy visit to the Director of Public Health, Adamawa State Ministry of Health, Mr. Isaac Kadala, were TB Network, Association of Civil Society Organizations on Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition (ACOMIN), and Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN).
The communities Jannah Health Foundation is calling for their inclusion in pandemic preparedness and response are religious bodies, communities of TB, HIV, and Malaria.
According to the Project Coordinator of Community Engagement and Pandemic Preparedness and Response (COPPER CE), Mr. Paul Balogun, during the previous pandemic, there was less engagement of these communities, hence, their visit to the health ministry to advocate for their involvement in the next pandemic preparedness.
Mr. Balogun emphasized that including these communities in the pandemic preparedness coordination platform will ensure they receive accurate and timely information on disease outbreaks.
Mr. Balogun says, “We have come with an advocacy through Janna Health Foundation to bring those communities on board in order to have accurate and timely information with regard to disease outbreak in the community, so that they will be able to prevent, protect or control disease outbreaks within their various target communities.
“If information is coming from these three communities – TB Network, ACOMIN and NEPWHAN with regards to any disease, their people will definitely respond and act towards it.
Not only them, we also target religious leaders, because people of different faiths are submissive to them. So, if accurate information is coming through the religious leaders on their different platforms, this will actually necessitate the next pandemic preparedness and response”.
Leaders of NEPWHAN, ACOMIN, and TB Network, Dishon Pwaboyedi, Ngozi Lauretta, and Helen Magani, briefed the Director on their community engagement and sensitization activities on various diseases. They reiterated the need for their involvement in pandemic preparedness and response to ensure accurate and timely information dissemination to their communities.
To demonstrate the ministry’s willingness to engage these communities, the Director of Public Health of the ministry of health, Mr. Isaac Kadala, invited the visiting organizations to attend weekly Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) meetings as well as the HIV/AIDS meeting. This according to him, will enable them to stay informed about emergency responses and other related activities.
“I encourage you to attend our EOC every Thursday. You don’t have to go there all of you, you can send a permanent representative or your Executive Director. That’s where you will get all the updates, what’s happening in all the disease areas”, the director said.
The Director commended the organizations’ efforts in creating awareness about diseases and invited them to join the One Health Coordination Platform and participate in related activities in the state.
He advised them to notify the ministry about their community engagements and outreaches, so that the ministry can project and support them where necessary.
