Promoting social and behavioural change is key to curbing misinformation and preventing the spread of health-related diseases.
In light of this, Breakthrough Action, a Non-Governmental Organisation, with support from John Hopkins University, last Saturday organized a training workshop to empower the Yilo Krobo Municipal Risk and Social Mobilization Team on misinformation or rumour tracking and response tools on COVID-19.
Speaking at the workshop, Mrs Mavis Osafo, the programme officer of Breakthrough Action, said the workshop, among other things, was to support the health promotion Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to ensure or promote social and behavioural change on malaria and other health-related diseases to avoid further spread.
To empower people to overcome misinformation and rumours, the NGO uses various tools including radio, education materials, focus group discussions and community engagement among others as its communication strategy, she added.
She said currently, the NGO was working in 10 regions and each of the regions, five districts were selected of which Yilo Krobo is a beneficiary.
Mrs Osafo urged health promotion officers to address any misinformation or rumour that may frustrate the COVID-19 vaccination agenda, adding that vaccines in general help people to survive and avoid the further spread of diseases.
“To address misinformation or rumours on the COVID-19 vaccine and any other vaccines and diseases, therefore, Breakthrough Action currently uses KOBO COLLECT, an app and/or the link https://kc.humanitariaresponse.info with the user name: mmr and password: Mmr@2020 to collect information in that respect from all the regions/districts it is working,” she said.
Mrs Osafo, therefore, urged the team members to report misinformation or rumours on any health-related disease verbatim to Breakthrough Action via the KOBO COLLECT app, the usage of which the participants were taken through.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Eric Tetteh, indicated that health was his priority and, therefore, committed to strengthening the relationship between the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly and Breakthrough Action.