PHOTO: Mrs. Marline T. Jarwoe head Civil Society organizations
By Emmanuel Mafelah, mafelahemmanuel29@gmail.com
GBARNGA, Liberia- Members of Civil Society organizations in Liberia’s central Bong County has embarked on a massive COVID-19 prevention awareness campaign across the county, as the Johnson and Johnson Coronavirus vaccination has started in the capital, Monrovia.
The Incident Management Team (IMS) says the over 300,000 doses of the J & J vaccine, which were donated by the United States government, are intended for people age 18 years and above, and for those who have not taken any COVID-19 vaccines.
The vaccination exercise, which started on Thursday, August 5, 2021, will shortly be rolled out in other countries around Liberia.
As the fight against the pandemic continues, civil society groups in Bong are engaged in massive awareness on the preventive measures, using mega phones in schools, churches, mosques and the communities in order to adequately inform citizens on the disease.
Despite the drop in COVID-19 cases in recent days according to health accounts, the Bong County Civil Society groups say it is necessary to do more awareness and enforcement of health protocols to kick the virus out of Liberia.
They say this is the surest means of helping government to further contain the coronavirus.
Mrs. Marline T. Jarwoe, head of Bong County’s Civil Society organizations said: We will continue to create awareness that COVID-19 is a global pandemic, and a problem that no one should feel someone wants to make money from.”
Madame Jarwoe then informed residents of Bong and its environs that the time has come for them to wake up and work with the government through the Ministry of Health and partners in combating the unwelcome stranger.
According to her, even if government is constrained to provide the needed support, citizens themselves should get involved with more initiatives in order to buttress central government in the fight against the disease.
“As civil society actors and actresses, we are going from public and private schools, from the churches to the mosques, from communities to communities with our awareness messages. So, we just want to encourage our people so that they too can take on such a venture because the government cannot be all over at the same time,” said Madame Jarwoe,
Patriotism, she believes, requires self-initiative and support.
The Bong Civil Society leader wants inhabitants of the County to give their support to the community from their personal pockets and not wait for government all the time.