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Actionaid continues to sensitize the community on prevention and community engagement in the fight against the Ebola virus disease

Briefing and awareness-raising in Nyiragongo territory on prevention and community engagement in the fight against Ebola virus disease

ACTIONAID has organized a briefing and awareness-raising session in Nyiragongo territory on prevention and community engage with various community leaders on February 21, 2020, with the aim of communicating the risks linked to Ebola virus disease and other permanent infections in our communities to improve community engagement in fighting against this epidemic.

The tenth epidemic of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri was declared by the Ministry of Health on August 1, 2018. The initial strategic response plan (PSR-1) covering the period up to October 2018 followed by the strategic response plan PSR-2 (and PSR-2.1) for the period from October 2018 to January 2019, from PSR-3 for the month of January to July 2019 and the PSR-4 from July to December 2019, facilitated the deployment of significant resources from the Congolese Government and its partners.

After the operational review of the PSR-4 strategic response plan organized in Goma from October 29 to 31, 2019, new strategic directions were formulated which guided the development of the 4th strategic response plan (SRP4.1) focusing on the main axes.

Community engagement
Briefing and awareness-raising

In order to bring the community to understand the risks associated with Ebola virus disease (EVD) so that it commits to contributing to the eradication of the epidemic of EVD by respecting the Protection and Control of Infection (PCI) measures in activities at the community level; Actionaid continues to engage in the fight against this epidemic; 50 participants, including group leaders, school directors, associations of representatives of the different groups, as well as civil society agents from Munigi, all coming from the Nyiragongo health zone have benefited from this sensitization.

 

The sensitization was facilitated by two experts from Provincial Division of Health (DPS) / Protection and Control of Infection (PCI) and from The General Coordination / Commission PCI / Wash and several thematic were presented such as prevention and control of infection ( PCI), communication risk and community engagement, PCI Activities / Services in Health Training (FOSA) and in the community, community engagement in PCI, some factors of communication failure in the community and the key moments of the contamination.

“In addition to the training, it is extremely important to understand the "Information ̶ decision ̶ Action" triad. In order for the community to become aware of and commit to perpetuating hygiene standards in everyday life, during and after the epidemic of the Ebola virus disease (EVD), the community must be aware of the risks linked not to only to this epidemic (EVD) but also to other infections which are frequent in our environment (cholera, measles, typhoid fever, malaria, HIV infection…)” ; highlighted Actionaid's Program Officer, Mdm Cecile Kasoki.

Distribution of WASH Kits
During the distribution of Kits

At the end of the sensitization, Actionaid has distributed WASH kits to different establishments including schools, civil society, the sub educational province, territorial administration and the chiefery.