WEDNESDAY 29 TH JULY 2020
Her Ladyship, former Chief Justice of Ghana and currently the Chairperson of the Ghana COVID-19 National Trust Fund, Justice (Rtd) Sophia Akuffo.
Minister of State with oversight responsibility of State Interest including Ghana COVID-19 National Trust Fund, Dr. Kweku Afriyie
The Administrator of the COVID-19 National Trust Fund, Dr. William Collins Asare.
Deputy Chairpersons of the NCCE; Members of the COVID-19 National Trust Fund or the Board of Trustees; Commission Secretaries, line Directors and Deputy Directors and staff of the NCCE and the National COVID-19 Trust Fund. Ladies and gentlemen of our media.
Good morning.
Today marks in some ways the end in other ways the beginning of our engagement with the Trust Fund on how they could support the NCCE to effectively deliver on our mandate. And on behalf of the National Commission for Civic Education, let me say thank so much to the National COVID-19 Trust Fund, for this show of confidence in the items that has been delivered to us to us.
For me it goes to emphasize and reemphasize the role the Commission in nation building. I would like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude, particularly to the Chairpersons of the National COVID-19 Trust Fund. Even before her current role, Justice (rtd) Sophia Akuffo has shown unflinching support for the Commission. Ones as Chief Justice, she always ensured that she involved NCCE in her nationwide and sensitisation on engaging young boys and girls across the country on the role of justice delivery and indeed the role of justice in democracy as well as what young children could grow up to become and understand their essence of civic responsibility and civic contribution to nation building. Madam, I salute you for that.
Carefully thought out package-retooling
Indeed, when the coronavirus was first reported in Ghana on the 12 of March, 2020, a lot has gone on. We have seen our nation or our citizens thrown into a state of panic and anxiety. We have seen the emergence of myth and misinformation. We have seen so much, but even so we have seen Government step up in its role in ensuring that the public is protected and that this devastating coronavirus does not wreak havoc on our society.
Unfortunate as it is that we have lost over 100 lives in Ghana, we indeed have been blessed. More developed countries have lost many more people and we would like to thank God for His mercies and protection in preserving the good people of Ghana to date.
In the emergence of this pandemic in Ghana, a lot has gone on and significantly the trust fund has been there to offer support institutions and vulnerable groups. And indeed, today NCCE is also a beneficiary of such benevolence of the Trust Fund.
We have seen the new normal evolve and as the Commission as we have gone to the nooks and cranny of our country to educate people, primarily in understanding that the prevention is always better than cure. We believe that inasmuch as we continue to engage the citizenry to respectively understand their role and cooperation with the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service and other authorities in fighting the pandemic, we also have to ensure that our health facilities are not unduly burdened. So the role of the NCCE cannot be underplayed in these times.
As the Commission on the field, we have confronted with a number of challenges. Besides the growing stigmatisation ad as many people has recovered is a potential for stigmatisation. We have stepped up out campaign on stigmatisation and getting people to understand that the disease is real because the feedback of disbelief is of a grave concern to the Commission. We also understand that it does not take only Government to fight this pandemic. It takes the role of each and every one of us in both our service in official capacities and private lives. It is everybody’s role to educate somebody. It is everybody’s role to be vigilant and to ensure that collectively we work together.
So for some of us whether it is in the supermarket, on the road side, we have notched somebody to pull up your mask, we have asked somebody to wash your hands with soap under running water, use your sanitiser, why is your child not wearing a face mask?,’ because everybody’s word of encouragement goes to protect another person. We indeed are all ambassadors here.
Madam Chairperson, it is important to state at this time, this support that you have given the Commission goes to bridge the very wide logistical gap that faces the NCCE. Today, retooling the Commission remains a matter of urgency, and these items given to the Commission goes a long way to bridging part of the gap. We continue to appeal to Government to provide the NCCE with the needed resources so that we take up our rightful role in providing much needed civic education, not only towards the Coronavirus but indeed in all aspect of lives that ensures nation building and ensures cohesion in our society, and to ensure that we all step up our efforts as patriotic citizens to fight the good fight in building our beloved Ghana.
It is also vital at this juncture to acknowledge the intervention by the President, who called me to find out for himself what the real challenges of the Commission were. And having explained to him the challenges, the Commission was loaned 50 Isuzu Pickup Vehicles for a period of three months as well as an amount of money for fuel and maintenance of those vehicles while they were in our hands. As we speak those vehicles have been distributed in our districts and are supporting our work on the field. These vehicles that we are receiving from the National COVID-19 Trust Fund are vehicles that are now owned by the Commission and to that extent we extent our hand of gratitude.
Madam Chairperson spoke about the donation the fund made to the Commission. But permit me respectfully give details the donation. The National COVID-19 Trust Fund donated amount of 25million cedis to commission, and though it was not as much as we would have liked, after back and forth and carefully drawn out conversions, we realised that we could use this money effectively to bridge these gaps and to ensure that we are everywhere in the country.
The following are details of the donation from the COVID-19 National Trust Fund:
- 10 Nissan Pick-up (Cross Country)
- 50 Public Address systems to be mounted on vehicle
- 100 Megaphones
- 4 Graphic Design and Production equipment
- 10 Laptops to facilitate communications with selected districts and regions.
- Funding also included fuel for operations
- Funding for the maintenance of the 10 vehicles
- Funding to repair of broken down vehicles of the Commission
- Funding for Monitoring and Coordination of activities on the field
- Funding for collaboration with Ghana Medical Association, Ministry of Health to ensure some Limited Research
Whiles we did not get what we were looking for, the way this funding was structured, ensured that every aspect of our communication, engagements and every aspect that allows us or give us that capacity to go out there is catered for here, and I would like to express my gratitude to the Trust Fund for this donation.
New Normal
The New Normal requires that we all become extra vigilante our roles as citizens of this country, and it is for us all to step up to this challenge. Every one of us goes beyond being ordinary citizen of Ghana but should become passionate advocate and ambassador in the fight and combat COVID-19. We as a Commission would like to assure Madam Chairperson and the team here that we would put these items to very good use.
With the help that we have received so far, today there is news of us entering shrines , crossing rivers, going into the real hinterlands to reach vulnerable groups to give them much needed education and support. Some of our strategies have changed to accommodate the new normal and they would continue to change to respond to the needs and necessities of the time.
As a Commission we would also like to assure the good people of Ghana that these items would be used judiciously, to preserve them and ensure they go a long way to making us even more relevant in this fight against the pandemic.
We thank the media for the immense visibility that has been afforded us with daily reportage. I also would like to thank our staff on the ground who I also refer to as our frontline workers in promoting preventive. Our staff have been absolutely phenomenal across the breath and length of the country and they continue to inspire me to do even more as the leaders of the Commission.
I also express my appreciation to the goodwill expressed by many Ghanaians in our districts and in our regions. We have received supports some small but equally significant and this goes to show that the good people of Ghana indeed repose great confidence in the role of the Commission and we as a Commission would live up to ensuring that our mandate is properly and effectively executed to the benefit of all of us. I thank the almighty God for giving us grace and life. There are many who are not here with us today, but if we are here and able to stand up and speak then we must indeed give thanks to the almighty God for his mercies upon us. So behalf of the Commission, I thank the National COVID-19 Trust Fund.
God bless our homeland Ghana, and make her great and strong.
Thank you.
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