ADVOCACY CENTRE FLAGS OFF COVID-19 AWARENESS AND SENSITIZATION CAMPAIGN AMONG INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF RIVERS STATE

All is now set for Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC) to flag off its COVID-19 Awareness and Sensitization Campaign among the indigenous peoples of Rivers State, Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

ADVOCACY CENTRE had observed, through baseline studies that although the Rivers State Government shutdown many markets and remains closed since March 2020 as part of COVID-19 preventive measures, many traders sacked from the markets have resorted and converted nearby streets and roads into markets and selling their products and produces without observing social distancing and other COVID-19 preventive protocols as recommended by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and World Health Organization (W.H.O.).

While ADVOCACY CENTRE supports calls that the State Government should reopen the markets and put COVID-19 preventive protocols in place to stop the contraction and spread of COVID-19 to enable some families make ends meet, we will not wait till the markets are reopened but to create awareness and sensitize men and women on COVID-19 in the makeshift markets that they have created and operating without observing social distancing among others.

It is against these backgrounds that ADVOCACY CENTRE would on Friday, July 31, 2020 flag off the COVID-19 Awareness and Sensitization Campaign in Bori, Khana Local Government Area. The COVID-19 Awareness and Sensitization Campaign Team would thereafter take the advocacy to Etche and Ahoada East Local Government Areas on different dates.

The choice of Khana LGA for the flag off is to enable our invited organizations and guests easily access the venue before the campaign train moves to farther communities where other makeshift markets exist to sensitize the peoples on COVID-19 preventive protocols.To embark on this COVID-19 Awareness and Sensitization campaign, ADVOCACY CENTRE has appointed ten (10) “COVID-19 Awareness Volunteers” from its network of One Million Youth Volunteers in the Niger Delta who will beautifully dress in customised T-shirts with black jeans and skirts during the awareness campaign. The Volunteers which consciously mainstreamed gender would also paste sensitization campaign posters, share hand bills, apply hand sanitizers and share hundreds of free customized quality Face Masks among others to hundreds of people in the markets.ADVOCACY CENTRE invites you to this very important and innovative COVID-19 Awareness and Sensitization Campaign being organized with support from Land is Life, USA.