UN
Social mobilizers hit the streets of Guinea to break down resistance against Ebola response
When Bamba Camara joined UNICEF’s social mobilization teams in Coronthie, Conakry, to sensitize the population on Ebola through door-to-door campaigns, he knew exactly what he would talk about: his wife, who died of Ebola two months ago.
“I wanted to make sure that people understand what Ebola is, how you can prevent becoming infected and what measures need to be taken when someone tests positive,” said Camara. According to him, due to stigmatization, people are reluctant to go and get treatment in the Ebola Treatment Centres (ETC).
“My wife arrived at the ETC in Donka and four days later she died. Her body was already too weak,” he said. Almost like a miracle, Camara’s two children, aged 1 and 3 years old, didn’t get infected, and neither did he. After a double quarantine of 21 days in their house, life went on. Camara decided to join UNICEF’s social mobilization teams, which are functioning under the umbrella of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).
Among all the three Ebola affected countries, Guinea is the one currently showing the biggest resistance towards health care workers and Ebola response protocols. UNICEF’s social mobilization teams often face confrontation in their door-to-doors campaigns.
“The resistance we felt in the past months was mainly related to bad or insufficient information,” explains Fatoumata Diaraye Diallo, one of UNICEF’s social mobilization team leaders. At the beginning of our activities, people thought EVD was invented.”
Through UNMEER's coordination, UNICEF has taken the lead in social mobilization, one of the main activities launched in the global campaign to fight Ebola. Aside from training its own staff, UNICEF is educating internal and external partners involved. UNICEF has been sensitizing the population all over the country and through different channels since March 2014.
“We tailor the sensitization campaign to audience and the situation,” says Timothy La Rose, UNICEF Chief of Communication in Guinea. “We have put out PSA’s on radio and TV, SMS messages, started door-to-door campaigns. We also contacted Imams and priests, healers, hunters, fishermen that they are passing the messages to the respective people in their surroundings.”
One of the strongest components of the sensitization campaign are the Community Watch Committees (CWC), which were created in November last year. They are composed of locals from the affected communities.
“We work a lot with them to get access inside the community, especially when there is strong resistance,” says Diallo, who speaks Pular, Soussou and Malenke and is at ease approaching her fellow Guineans.
The five men sitting in front of a Mosque in Kaloum, Conakry, pretended to ignore her when Fatoumata approached them. Then she was offered a chair and the chat among them started.
For one of them, Alseny Camara, an IT engineer, the problem was obvious: “The solution to end Ebola lies in communication. Everyone needs to be involved. We need to dialogue about how to prevent the disease and how severe it is,” he says. Camara believes that key messages should be transmitted by Imams throughout the country since 87 percent of the population is Muslim.
For Fatoumata and her social mobilization team, this day is considered as a success – not long ago this area was one of those showing strong resistance.
