The Ghana Prisons Service has received Ebola Disease Education materials including posters and flyers from Dalex Finance and Leasing Company Limited (Dalex) in Accra.

The donation from the Dalex Ebola Education Fund, a private sector initiative to raise money to educate Ghanaians about Ebola, was to assist the Prisons Service to educate Prisoners and raise awareness about the virus.

Dalex, with technical support from the United Nations Children and Education Fund (UNICEF), initiated a one million Ghana cedis Ebola Education Fund to raise private sector money to support a large scale effort to educate the Ghanaian population about the Virus.

Mr Kenneth Kwamina Thompson, Chief Executive Officer of Dalex Finance, said a valuable tool in helping to prevent an outbreak of the disease in Ghana is a proactive nationwide education campaign.

He said managers of the fund considered Prisons Service a strategic community, which must not be left out in the educational campaign.

He, therefore, entreated authorities of the Prions Service to ensure that the materials were posted at vantage points across the country mostly on their facilities and in communities they operated from.

Mr Thompson said the initiators of the Ebola Education Fund were concerned that the current public education effort on the Ebola Disease was slow and limited in scope.

He noted: “This is not the time to wait on the government or to moan about the slow reaction of the Ministry of Health, we have decided to move to un-served communities and institutions to help spread the message as precautionary measures.

He explained that the fund, which is a private initiative, would use radio, TV, information vans, posters, and, SMS messages to educate the public on the Ebola Virus Disease.

The setup of the fund was motivated by a shared concern that the potential effect of the Ebola Virus on the already soft economy of Ghana could be severe.

Dalex Finance believes that a valuable tool in helping to prevent an outbreak of the disease in Ghana is a proactive nationwide education campaign.

Dalex Finance as the initiator of the fund has donated seed money of GH¢100,000.

Ms Matlida Baffour-Awuah, Controller-General of the Ghana Prisons Service, commended Dalex Ebola Education Fund for the gesture and called on other institutions to undertake similar initiatives so that Ghanaians would be informed about the deadly virus.

The Fund is opened to contributions from the private sector, corporate organisations, non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations and individuals.

Contributions will be accepted only from organisations and individuals, who do not engage in activities detrimental to public health such as child labour practices, manufacture and sale of tobacco products, manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages among others.

The Fund will be used only for the creation of content for the education campaign and the execution of the campaign itself.

All unused funds after the campaign will be donated to the Princess Marie Louis Children’s Hospital, Accra; Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’s children’s ward, Kumasi; Tamale Teaching Hospital Children’s Ward and Volta Regional Hospital Children’s Ward, Ho; to undertake clearly defined priority projects or procure vital equipment to support healthcare delivery.

UNICEF is providing communication content and advisory services while Business and Financial Times (BFT) will lead the media effort and also the fund managers.

Dalex had also provided 10,000 flyers to be distributed through its sales force of over 1,000 sales executives.