Ebola is still a threat to Ghana – Red Cross

The Ghana Red Cross Society (GRCS) has begun an orientation programme for its volunteers to build their capacity to educate Ghanaians on the threat of the Ebola virus and cholera in the Western Region.

Addressing a stakeholders’ forum in Takoradi, over the weekend, Mr. Kofi Addo, Secretary-General of the GRCS, said the volunteers would embark on vigorous sensitization campaigns in all the 22 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the region, to create awareness on early warning signals of the two communicable diseases.

The move, according to him, would enable Ghanaians to be alert and report any outbreak of diseases bearing the symptoms of Ebola and cholera to the nearest health facility, to curtail any wide spread of the diseases in the communities.

The project is being funded by the Japanese government, with an amount of $650,000 dollars for a one year period, and had targeted five thousand people in cholera prone-communities and two million, five hundred thousand people in the region with Ebola messages.

Mr Addo said the Red Cross volunteers would be supported with logistics to undertake the campaign whiles stakeholder consultation and baseline survey, as well as training for volunteers had been conducted.

The Red Cross would embark on community mobilization and mass communication in the selected communities and urged the citizenry to support their efforts to ensure a successful exercise.