Monrovia – The Kingsley Lington Academy High School in collaboration with Professional Outreach Incorporated (POI), a group of Liberian staffs, who worked with the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) Monday, March 30, made a donation of personal protective equipment (PPE) valued at US$9000 to the Ministry of Health. Presently, Liberia has joined the rest of the world combating Covid-19, the disease associated with the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
Before he handed the cartons of assorted anti-covid-19 materials over to Health Minister Dr. Welhimina Jallah, Mr. Sabato Neufville, head of the POI and proprietor of Kingsley Lington Academy, said that was one of their ways of identifying with the government in its fight against the virus.
Neufville also pledged his group’s support to the Ministry of Health if they are going to join the campaign to create more awareness against the virus.
“All of us are talking about Monrovia right now. But virus could be spreading in parts of the country. So we need to go out in the leeward counties to create the awareness to fight the virus,” he said.
According to him, they are going to discuss partnership with Health Ministry so that the virus message can also be taken to other parts of the country and not only Monrovia as was done in 2014 during the fight against the deadly Ebola virus disease.
The items donated included 2005 pieces of PPE suit, 870 pieces of face shield, 420 pieces of nose cover, 100 pieces of goggles and 800 pieces of plastic gloves.
Responding, Health Minister Dr. Jallah promised that the items donated won’t only be used in Montserrado County.
“When they came to me and told me about their experience, we thought that they could be used in the fight against the virus,” Dr. Jallah said.
She stated that her administration wants to extend the anti-coronavirus messages to the rest of the 13 counties.
“So we want to say thank you on behalf of the Government of Liberia, the Ministry of Health, NPHIL and the Liberian people in general, for such a general contribution toward fighting the coronavirus,” the Health Minister stated.
She told Neufville that the Ministry will work with him and others to reach all other parts of the country with the anti-coronavirus messages.
About Sabato Neufville
He is a UNMIL Information Associate with the Community Outreach Unit. He recently expressed his willingness to help prevent the coronavirus disease in Liberia as did with the fight against Ebola few years ago.
Neufville, who was one of UNMIL’s main Ebola fighters, expressed his willingness to help the Liberian government in its fight against present menace.
“I am happy to share my experiences of how we used traditional groups of communicators and traditional means of communication to stem the tide of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Liberia.”
The former UNMIL community mobilizer said his biggest worry is for Liberians in the rural areas who may not have heard adequate pieces of information about the virus, “and they need to be educated on its signs and symptoms and how to prevent them from being affected.”
Neufville told FrontPageAfrica that what Liberians need now is not fear or panic but a trusted outlet through which they could get the right information for lives to be saved. “In 2014, I was involved in mobilizing and recruiting popular Liberian musicians, including Madam Juli Endee and her Crusaders for Peace, to produce an Ebola prevention music album with songs in different dialects. I also worked with one of Liberia’s foremost comedians, Georgio Boutini, to produce a regular radio program on UNMIL Radio that educated Liberians on the virus.”