ASABA/Nigeria: Citizens have been urged not to stigmatize nor discriminate against people living with various forms of health challenges, but to show them love so as to give them a sense of livelihood.
Members of the National delegates executing the Covid-19 Response Mechanism and Resilient System Strengthening for Health, Community System Strengthening (C19RM/RSSH-CSS) made the statement during their two days of raining of participants that will help to implement the program in Delta state.
The Team leader and Finance Manager, for the Civil Society in Malaria Control Immunization and Nutrition (ACOMIN), Mrs. Bola Vaughan noted that they were in the state to engage participants on stigma and discrimination assessment for people having various forms of health diseases.
Saying the program being an ATM project will focus more on Malaria, Tuberculosis, and HIV as it relates to the Covid-19 pandemic in society.
Mrs Vaughan stated: ” we will be administering some questionnaires on respondents as a tool that will enable us to know the extent of stigmatization and discrimination that is prevalent as it cuts across the three thematic diseases of malaria, Tuberculosis, and HIV as it relates to Covid-19 pandemic in our health facilities in our various communities.
“We will engage data collectors and a supervisor that will be able to effectively carry out the assigned job and give feedback which will help in decision making.
She informed them during a two-day workshop on the importance of Focus Group Discussions (FGD) with people and Key Informant Interview (KII) with the head of the health facilities among other relevant techniques they will apply during the course of the assignment.
The program officer, Mr. Richard Hule who took the participants on the practical aspect of the lecture emphasized that they should always have a diagram to analyse the effects of the stigmatization and discrimination on these thematic diseases before, during, and after the Covid-19 pandemic so as to appreciate the different responses and reactions from various inputs to get the expected results.
He encouraged them to be very careful with their choice of words so as to get the right respondents during the distribution of the questionnaire or FGD sessions.
The Delta State Chairman of ACOMIN, Pastor Greg Sifo, and the State Program Officer, Miss Juliet Obiajulu respectively thanked the national delegates for the two days of intensive training and assured them that the participants will give their best in actualising the desired objective of the program.
