TI-Rwanda urges collective efforts in fight against Covid

It is not only the government’s responsibility to singlehandedly fight Covid-19; civil society and private sector should also come on board, to help the enforcement of the measures in place to contain the pandemic. This observation was made by Marie-Immaculee Ingabire, the chairperson of Transparency International (TI) Rwanda Chapter on Friday, July 2, during a ceremony to handover booklets to Rwanda Biomedical Centre which will help in encouraging people to respect Covid containment measures. These booklets contain basic information and tips about how to restrain the spread of Covid-19 and they will be used by Community Health Workers in their daily sensitization work. “It is sad to see that people are more scared of police than they are of Covid-19, which kills! It seems like we have abandoned the government to fight this battle alone,” she said. She called on the contribution of local and international bodies which she said are in position to influence Rwandans residents, both foreigners and citizens, by projecting how their negligence would have a negative impact on the whole country. TI-Rwanda handed over 5,000 booklets, which were produced at a cost of Rwf8 million. However, the activities on which the remaining amount will be spent have not yet been disclosed. Julien Mahoro Niyingabira, the Division Manager in charge of communication at Rwanda Biomedical Centre welcomed the donation saying; “These booklets will be distributed to Community Health workers despite the fact that they are fewer than our overall number of community health workers, who are 65,000.” “It will be one booklet per one community worker among the yet to be selected ones, to avoid sharing which could facilitate the spread instead”, he added. In their call to action for other civil society members, TI-Rwanda officials said that any form of contribution, different from its own, by fellow organisations would be highly welcome. “It has been obvious that people are giving up on following measures, which is why numbers have been rising explicitly in these last days”, Ingabire explained.

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TI-Rwanda urges collective efforts in fight against Covid