80 religious leaders including Christian leaders, muslim clerics and traditional healers from 40 districts across the country converged last Thursday in Sunyani to receive training and orientation on covid-19 vaccines.
Opening the two-day training, Dr James Duah, deputy director of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) mentioned that the training had become necessary considering the pivotal role played by these leaders in community mobilization especially during crisis. “You have the influence, and when you speak to your congregants or to members of the community, they listen to you more” he said.
He iterated that governments efforts towards the fight against covid-19 can only be successful when it is all inclusive.
Some leaders from the Christian and moslem fraternity expressed their appreciation for the invitation extended to them. “We are happy to have been recognised to be part of the exercise, because we also owe it to our congragants and the general community. We believe that by receiving this training we will be in the best position to teach others to help fight the COVID-19 outbreak which is affecting lives” – Rev Samuel Oteng, of the Wenchi Methodist church acknowledged.
Mr Eric Wormenor, a member of the facilitators mentioned that safe and effective vaccine together with better treatment remains one of the strategic exist of the pandemic thus the need to generate more interest and uptake among the community. He was impressed about the enthusiasm of the participants and was hopeful that they will be able to influence their congregants, followers and the general community.
The training is expected to provide a platform to listen and address myths and misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccines, address hesitancy, and to generate demand for covid-19 vaccination. It also aims at sustaining general compliance with the COVID-19 preventive protocols.
Ghana has since March 2021 administered 1.27M doses of covid-19 vaccines including AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson. More than 400,000 have fully vaccinated. The country is expected to vaccinate at least 17million of the general population.