The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has translated COVID-19 preventive directives into sermons as the Commission’s COVID-19 Civic Educators engages leadership of Local Council of Churches in the Ahafo Region.
Mr Eric Adu, NCCE Acting Ahafo Regional Director explained that the church community formed a critical component of the Ghanaian society, and the commission therefore roped in religious leaders as part of its social mobilisation strategies to galvanise support for the COVID-19 public education and sensitization campaign.
He said “we cannot have effective public education without the involvement of faith based organisations, religious bodies must play active roles to halt the spread of Coronavirus in the Ghanaian communities”.
Mr Adu stated in a COVID-19 sermon delivered during engagement with the Leadership of Tano South Local Council of Churches, which was organized by the NCCE Tano South Municipal Office at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana Auditorium in Bechem.
The NCCE Acting Ahafo Regional Director applauded the religious leaders for their high level of commitment to ensure that the congregants were taken through all the safety protocols within the precincts of their churches.
He however, expressed misgivings about the behaviour of most of the church members who only adhered to protocols when they were within the church environment, but threw the same safety protocols to the dogs when they stepped out from the church premises to the larger community.
Mr. Adu touched on the need to avoid stigmatisation of people who had recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic as such attitudes and behaviours had the propensity to negate all the successes chalked so far in the fight against the pandemic.
He appealed to religious leaders to encourage their members to continue to practise the hygiene protocols even after the cvid-19 has passed, as research had shown that most of the sicknesses in communities were as a result of insanitary conditions and poor personal grooming.
He advised the church leaders to take personal interest in how waste and other used personal protection equipment such as the face masks, hand tissues, gloves, aprons, and others were disposed of without endangering any life, especially that of children.
He also, prayed the local council of churches to educate their members to partake in the registration exercise to enable them to vote on 7th December, 2020 to elect the President and the parliamentarians as democracy thrived on active participation of all the qualified citizens.
Ms Czarina Enyo Akua Fiawotso, the NCCE Officer-in-Charge of the Tano South Municipal Office said following the partial lifting of the restrictions on church gatherings and activities by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the state had placed lots of responsibility on religious leaders.
She said the NCCE in partnership with other COVID-19 pandemic management committee members were visiting most of the churches to observe the level of adherence to the safety protocols put in place to prevent the spread of the pandemic among the congregants.
The Chairman of the Local Council of Churches, the Reverend Frimpong Boadu expressed his appreciation to the Commission and appealed to his colleagues to work with a united front to contribute to the development of Ghana.
He called on government to adequately resource the NCCE to effectively deliver on its mandate as civic education was an indispensable tool for democratic development.
Source: GNA
