By Tokpa Tarnue, tarnue82@gmail.com
VOINJAMA, Liberia- Journalists and media owners in Lofa County Tuesday began a massive public sensitization across the county to buttress ongoing efforts by government to provide public education on preventive measure against the coronavirus (COVID19).
The exercise under the auspices of the Community Volunteers Initiative Lofa or COVIL, is expected to cover towns and villages in the county, with the activities focusing largely on further propagating current preventive messages released by the Health Ministry.
According to COVIL spokesman Tokpa Tarnue, they will print and distribute 10,000 flyers, expecting that the expectation that each of them will be seen by at least four persons.
Mr. Tarnue explained that they will recruit some of the students currently out of school to serve as volunteers for the exercise.
Their tasks will include taking flyers to their respective towns and distributing them and explaining to their family and friends the importance of Health Ministry’s regulations in preventing themselves and their respective communities from the deadly Coronavirus.
“We are galvanizing our own resources to print flyers while awaiting other preventive materials from our government, citizens and partners to move faster than this virus which we can do as we did during the Ebola outbreak. We will be recruiting volunteers to help us do this faster and correct. We will also be calling on you for your expert advice and training when we need to do so,” the Lofa based journalists and media owners said in a communication to County Superintendent William Kamba Tamba.
For his part, COVIL Executive Director Kolubah B. Akoi said “Journalists want to inform the government of President Weah that they (journalists) should not be seen as enemies of the state or the opposition but real partners who want to see a fair and transparent society where people will be accountable for their wrongs.
Police in Voinjama recently jailed Mr. Akoi after publishing documents which appeared to link the Lofa County Community College to financial misconduct.