Youth for Change cautions Liberians

The Youth for Change, a local group is cautioning the Government of Liberia and Liberians not to put their faith in people but to join hands and “fight the deadly Ebola virus.” The group’s Executive Director, Alex F. Devine, said Youth for Change has embarked on a project called “community awareness on Ebola prevention and update.”

He described the project as a community roadmap designed to buttress the government’s National Ebola Task Force headed by President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. Alex made the comments over the weekend at the Center for Hope in Paynesville City. He said the project has four pillars, including training volunteers to carry out prevention outreach and data collection in communities for onward submission to government and partners.

He said a weekly community forum will be held for stakeholders and partners, business leaders, youth organizations and leaders for community task force will be invited to give a weekly statistical update directly to the community through their leadership on gains made and challenges being faced in the Ebola fight.

The youth leader also named psychosocial as a means of reintegrating Ebola survivors to their respective communities and at the same time, bring them live before the community during the weekly update to help de-traumatize affected persons.

“As reported by the Center for Disease Control on September 23, 2014 that the epidemic might never be fully controlled and that the virus could cripple civil life in affected countries, this project also covers training for kids and screening cartoon documentaries in the thirty communities, since statistics has shown that they are the most vulnerable and easy carriers of the virus due to ignorance,” Mr. Devine noted.

The Youth for Change executive stressed that if Liberia is to be like Nigeria and Senegal in the soonest possible time, working through community structures is the only appropriate way forward.