Covid-19: UNICEF Partners African Celebrities To Encourage Vaccine Uptake In Continent
The United Nations Children’s Fund has teamed up with Nigeria and South Africa’s celebrities to increase awareness about the covid-19 vaccine and thus boost its uptake in the Continent.
UNICEF disclosed this in a press statement on Wednesday, January 26, 2022.
TheFact Nigeria observed that the Continent still recorded low turn up in covid-19 vaccination due to the belief that the vaccines were tools used by the western world to depopulate Africa.
As a result, UNICEF launched its first ever U-Report Challenge calling on all 13.3 million U-Reporters in Africa to help get vaccines to the unvaccinated.
With an initial focus on six countries on the continent (Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe), the U-Report #GiveitaShot challenge will be rolled-out for eight weeks.
Weekly messages will be sent on U-Report to encourage young people to learn about COVID-19 vaccines. They will be engaged in community actions (both online and offline).
Through improving access and confidence in covid-19 vaccines, the #GiveitaShot challenge aims to activate young people in motivating those eligible in their community to get vaccinated.
Covid-19 information and advocacy messages have been packaged and disseminated via SMS, Facebook Messenger and other communication channels.
“Africa has been battling COVID-19 for two years now, at a time of Omicron, it is more important than ever to get vaccines to the unvaccinated”, said U-Report Supporter, Kate Henshaw.
Also lending his voice to the course, U-Report Supporter, Maps Maponyane noted:
“If we want to combat misinformation, it is key to mobilize the continent’s U-Reporters and provide much-needed information on Covid-19 vaccines to save people’s lives”, he said.
It is estimated that only about 10 per cent of the adult population on the African continent is vaccinated against the covid-19 virus.
