<<Print>>

The Ghana Red Cross Society will conduct a nationwide sensitisation of the National Polio Vaccination campaign to increase awareness on the exercise.
The exercise is being undertaken by the Ghana Health Service from Thursday to Sunday to vaccinate children under five years across the country against Type Two poliovirus to break the transmission of the disease.

During the week, volunteers from the Ghana Red Cross Society will join the exercise with public sensitisation to complement the government's efforts to cover 6.9 million under-five children across the country.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday[October 4, 2022], the President of the Ghana Red Cross Society, Kwame Gyimah-Akwafo, said 400 volunteers had been deployed to mobilise hard to reach communities across the country to create awareness for polio vaccination by the Ghana Health Service.

He said the campaign was geared towards encouraging parents to allow their children under five years to get the polio vaccination.

“Volunteers before the campaign, will conduct door-to-door household interaction, in preparation for the polio vaccination campaign to mobilise households with children under five years,” Mr Gyimah-Akwafo said.

Ghana Red Cross

He explained that each volunteer was expected to reach out to 150 households in three days before the campaign starts, adding that through its volunteer base they would be able to reach over 60,000 households across the country.

“The volunteers are also to conduct mop up activities where they are visiting households for missed children. Vaccinators will be referred to visit such households to vaccinate the missed children or they would be escorted by the volunteers to the nearest health facility for vaccination.

“This is expected to support the government to meet its set target of 6.9 million children across the country. This campaign marks a key milestone in our quest to contain the ongoing polio outbreak in Ghana,” the Ghana Red Cross Society president said.

Mr Gyimah-Akwafo said the sensitisation was crucial as it would ensure that people would be responsive and take part in the polio vaccination.

“This is key in ensuring that the government would be able to achieve its target of vaccinating six million children across the country,” he noted.

He thanked the volunteers for putting in great effort in the campaign, noting that it marked a key milestone for the Ghana Red Cross Society and other stakeholders in ensuring that the people received proper healthcare services.

The President of the Ghana Red Cross Society said the campaign was being funded by the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and the Coca Cola Foundation.

Polio

The Ghana Red Cross President also indicated that the tools for halting transmission of polioviruses had stood the test of time and, therefore, called on the public to join the fight against the polio outbreak and other public health emergencies.

“As a leading volunteer-based humanitarian organisation in Ghana and also an auxiliary to government, the Ghana Red Cross Society will continue to complement the government's efforts in the areas of social interventions, which include, emergency response, health education, social mobilisation, risk communication, media sensitisation, community engagement and Water Sanitation and Hygiene Project(Ghana-WASH) in communities,” he said.

The Programmes Coordinator of International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Nuor Pwani, expressed the commitment of the society to offer technical and funding support to its members to carry out humanitarian activities.