Abuja – The Nigeria Red Cross Society (NRCS) in collaboration with the International Committee of Red Cross and Red Crescent has embarked on a sensitisation campaign to six communities on health messages across the country.
Mr Bolaji Anani, the National President NRCS, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja.
Anani said that the Nigerian Red Cross Society had a mission to assist victims of disaster, implement health and social welfare programmes while promoting humanitarian principles in Nigeria.
He said the organisation had embarked on promoting health messages called Beneficiary Communication in Bauchi, Taraba, Niger, Kano, Lagos and Rivers states.
He said Beneficiary Communication was the act of engaging various communities in adopting best health behaviours while ensuring certain diseases do not reoccur in such environments.
“Red Cross is engaging communities, creating awareness and sensitising them on various diseases such as cholera, measles, Zika virus, Ebola, cerebro spinal meningitis and lassa fever.
“Based on our survey, we realised that certain communities experienced disease out breaks annually such as cholera and meningitis which are preventable and could be eradicated completely.
“Also, disease such as Ebola and Zika virus are no more in Nigeria but there is every possibility that it could resurface if we do not abide and adopt preventive measures.
Anani, however, noted that beneficiary communication began in 2015 across 10 African countries including Nigeria.
The president further identified wrong perception and cultural practices in communities where its members linked certain diseases tp gods and witchcraft, thereby leading to re-occurrence of the diseases.
He said the organisation trained 120 community based volunteers and 18 supervisors to conduct door to door sensitisation and focus group discussion in the six states.
“We firstly engage the community, religious and traditional leaders in each community sensitising them on the project.
“We do not just tell them how to live a healthy life style, or how to keep their environment clean, rather we speak with members of the community to find out more about their environment.
“Location of their streams, farm lands, toilets, their knowledge about certain ailments and some practices they are involved in that could lead to out break of diseases.
“Without condemning them, we will advice and teach them preventive measures, how to keep their environment clean, safest area to defecate, checking the streams and ensuring the water they drink is safe,’’ he said.
Anani added that the organisation also presents radio programmes translated in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba and Pigin English as well as flyers on various ailments which is distributed in all the communities.
He said that counseling in trauma management, sexual and gender based violence survival support among others were some of the health and social welfare programmes provided by the society. (NAN)