Crusaders for Peace Hails Pres. George Weah for Settlement of 2,500 Mobilizers & Communicators

Health

Crusaders for Peace Hails Pres. George Weah for Settlement of 2,500 Mobilizers & Communicators

IPNews-Monrovia: The Liberia Crusaders for Peace has congratulated President George Manneh Weah for the payment of over 2,500 volunteers who have worked as social mobilizers and communicators on Covid-19 prevention since March, 2020.

A press release from the Liberia Crusaders for Peace also thanked Monrovia City Mayor Jefferson Koijee and Finance & Development Planning Minister Smauel Tweah for being very instrumental in securing the necessary financial resources to paid those volunteers.

“I just like to say thank you for a job well done and for exercising patience during the process.” Amb Endee stated.

From the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak in Liberia, the Liberia Crusaders for Peace -LCP and the Monrovia City Government recruited, trained and deployed the 2,500 volunteers into the various communities across Montserrado and Margibi Counties to educate the public on how to prevent themselves and their communities from the spread of the coronavirus. Delay in payments to the volunteers led to series of street riots and embarrassment for both commuters and others.

The Liberia Crusaders for Peace has secured funding for two months and payment of Mobilizers and Communicators will take place at the LCP Headquarters on the Capitol Byepass beginning next week.

According to a LCP release, payment schedule will be communicated through the various Structural Heads and the process will be photographed as a mark of transparency and for auditing purposes. Payment for Vendors that rendered services during Covid-19 awareness exercise is in process.

Liberia Crusaders for Peace has strongly warned against the use of proxy and urged all volunteers to show up in person to collect their money. Volunteers are also asked to come with valid ID Cards such as National ID, Voter ID or Passport.

Meanwhile all communicators and mobilizers are advised to return their working Jackets, Mega Phones and tags issued by the Liberia Crusaders for Peace. The Crusaders for Peace stated that it has put in place all the various health protocols including hand washing and volunteers are to wear their nose masks and keep a social distance to avoid over congestion.

Liberia Crusaders for Peace reassures the general public of its commitment to international best practices as it continues its collaboration with the government of Liberia through the Monrovia City Corporation- MCC, the Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), to help put an end to the covid-19 pandemic.

It may be recalled, Volunteers of the MCC-LCP worked to raise awareness of COVID-19. The campaign’s objective was to complement Liberia’s national response to COVID-19, by educating vulnerable populations on signs and symptoms, preventing transmission and handling infection.

The volunteers provided flyers and megaphones to facilitate an awareness-raising initiative in the vulnerable communities of Slipway, West Point and Clara Town, and other hotpots in Montserrado County. The volunteers mobilized Clara Town marketers, who provided a sound system that helped spread information on COVID-19, while the community chairperson accompanied the team throughout the entire activity.

During campaign, community members were encouraged to ask questions, while myths were dispelled. The campaign reached homes, shops and market areas, and crucial information was provided.

The Executive Director, Liberia Crusaders For Peace Madam Juli Endee in an exclusive interview with The Independent Probe Newspaper stated she was a joyous woman at the moment following the government of Liberia approval and subsequent remittance of funding to begin payments of the volunteers.

She rejected claims in some quarters that the Crusaders for Peace was handpicked to perform the task.

Amb. Endee added that persuasive and consistent means are being implored by the LCP to encourage citizens to continue to prioritize social distancing, the wearing of face masks, among others to prevent the spread of the virus.

She disclosed that mobilizers and campaigners of the LCP will work with various groups including the county health teams, youth, students, women, disabled, traditionalists, members of the girls guard and boys scout associations, among others to spread anti-Coronavirus messages to citizens and others across the country.

Madam Endee pointed out that these mobilizers and campaigners will serve both morning and evening shifts to ensure that preventive and awareness messages on the prevention of Covid-19 reach everyone including farmers, who most often return from their respective farms during the late evening hours.

Recently the Crusaders for Peace collaborated with the Incident Management System , with support from the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to the Ministry of Health, in conducting awareness activities across the country .

“The Liberia Crusaders for Peace will be doing a nationwide Covid-19 awareness activities in the various counties. We are going to be talking about social distancing, mask wearing-we are going to share the jingles that were produced; we are going to give out promotional materials like flyers, posters, and banners. Most people are not even wearing the face masks”.

She added that series of community engagements would be held with the locals and others, beginning with Montserrado County.

“We also have some distributions to make outside of the project from the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to the Ministry of Health. We are going to be implementing it”.

She indicated that Monitors from Montserrado County will be deployed in the counties, while communicators of the awareness and preventive messages will be recruited from the various counties.

Ambassador Endee pointed out that the campaign will also be used to underscore the need for the vaccination of babies and children under five years during this Coronavirus pandemic.

Disregard for health protocols

Speaking further, Ambassador observed that many citizens continue to roam around street corners and other areas in total disregard for protocols set aside by health experts, including social distancing and compulsory wearing of face masks in public places or gatherings.

She attributed the situation to the doubting of the existence of the virus in Liberia by some citizens.

“It is going to take a lot of awareness to discourage our people from living in a state of denial. When citizens are in denial-that’s the problem-when people are not use to good health practices, it’s also a contributing factor. So what suppose to be done now is to look at the hotspots and intensify awareness in those areas”.

“Those who have survived need to tell their stories-those who are in the communities, banks or market places need strategies. We need people to encourage people in those areas to adhere to health protocols”.

Ambassador Endee maintained that mobilizers and campaigners of the LCP will change the strategies and remain consistent to ensure that Covid-19 preventive awareness messages are provided to citizens.

“It is very improtant to mask yourself. for the safety of you and your family. We need to now start reaching out to our people”.

LCP was not handpicked

At the same time, the Executive Director of the Liberia Crusaders for Peace has denied reports that the group was unilaterally selected to initiate the nationwide awareness campaign.

According to her, the LCP participated in a competitive bidding process at the Ministry of Health and came out victorious based upon its numerous years of experience in communicating awareness messages across the country.

“For people to say we were highhandedly picked, I think this is an understatement. For more than 25 years of experience into community engagement and communication. Our track record has been followed. This is an emergency period and we have the track record of single sourcing. We were not handpicked, we earned it”.

The preventive awareness campaign against Covid-19 being spearheaded by the LCP across the country, will also coincide with the distribution of face-masks, soap, rice and anti Covid-19 buckets to citizens across the country.