The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in collaboration with UNICEF and the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security on Friday trained another batch of stakeholders at the Western Rural District on Ebola prevention and control mechanisms.
The training of trainers session which was held at the Western Rural District Council at Waterloo, witnessed the participation of councilors, religious leaders, civil society organizations, non-governmental organization, youth representatives, traditional leaders and herbalists who were trained on various aspects of Ebola prevention including mode of transmission, symptoms, prevention and control, management and treatment, and contact tracing.
The purpose of the training is to enhance various stakeholders who are believed to be influential people in their communities to complement the government’s effort in the dissemination of a clearly defined message on Ebola prevention and control in the country.
The Deputy Chairperson of the Western Rural District Council, Margaret Kargbo described the training to be timely and significant especially that the District has started recording shocking numbers of Ebola confirmed cases.
Madam Kargbo lamented that the denial habit of most people in the District and the country in general is greatly responsible for the spread of the virus.
She pledged her total support to serve as ambassador in the dissemination of the knowledge gained from the training and urged all to abide by the preventive rules given by health officials.
In interview with Awoko, a beneficiary of the training, Dickeys Johnson, the Western Regional Secretary- General for the National Association of Farmers, expressed gratitude to FAO and partners for organizing the training, as he lamented that the farming community which constitutes the greater percentage of the country’s population has been greatly hit by the Ebola outbreak which coincided with the planting period.
Johnson stated that the knowledge gained from the training has capacitated him enough to sensitize his colleague farmers especially those in the Agric-Business Centres and encouraged them not to hide sick people in their communities, as he has learnt that it is one of the fastest means of spreading the virus.
Another participant, Sheik Ibrahim Conteh, an Imam from Grafton Community told Awoko that the training enabled him to better understand about the prevention and control of the Ebola Virus.
“I was shock to learn that hand shake can transfer the virus from one person to another and as Muslims that is our usual mode of greeting after prayers”.
He pledged to desist from the habit of handshake and equally educate his membership on the knowledge gained from the training.
The participants are to be provided with necessary logistics to embark on sensitization activities in their various communities.
By Keifa M. Jaward
Tuesday August 02, 2014