The National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) has outlined a number of solutions aimed at alleviating health threats amid the coronavirus disease.
The proposal is also aimed at supporting President George Manneh Weah’s “Masks for All” campaign with support for robust hand washing stations.
Speaking at a news conference in Monrovia recently, the Director General of NPHIL, Dr. Mosoka Fallah, said the proposed solutions will also stimulate the local economy of three pilot communities, namely, West Point, Kew Kru Town, and Caldwell (North Road and Samukai Town Communities).
According to the NPHIL boss, the initiative will financially support local tailors/seamstresses to produce the masks based on specifications from NPHIL.
“It will empower local women involved in soap making by helping them to produce local watery soap, which will be bought by NPHIL to support the hands washing stations,” said Dr. Fallah.
He pointed out that the masks will be purchased by NPHIL and donated to the local community government and taskforce so that they can in turn sell for a minimum cost of L$25.
“NPHIL will build in a rigorous monitoring and evaluation procedure to measure the impact of this pilot intervention on adherence. We are going to design studies to measure the association between these interventions and the prevalence and incidence of Covid-19 in these pilot communities,” he furthered.
“We are also going to measure the effect of the financial incentives on the tailors and soap making women and their livelihood during the covid-19 pandemic. We will also build a research consortium on this to identify additional funding to scale-up if the pilot is successful,” Dr. Fallah added.
As part of its contribution to the “Masks for All” campaign, a US-based Liberian organization under the banner of Grow Hope Foundation donated a cash amount of US$1,500 to NPHIL.
Presenting the cash amount to NPHIL through its Deputy Director General, Madam Jane Macauley, the Project Officer of Grow Hope Foundation, Mr. Sonny Fumbah lauded NPHIL for the many great strides in the fight against the virus.
“The entire world has one enemy and that common enemy is the coronavirus. Our organization wants to present US$1,500 for this initiative and we hope to do more as time progresses,” noted Fumbah.
The Deputy Director General of NPHIL, Madam Jane Macauley, called on Liberians to adhere to all health protocols.
The deputy NPHIL boss pointed out that adherence to the strict health protocols is an imperative and as such, all Liberians must join the fight.
“We will work with transport to ensure that this is ensured. I want to call on all Liberians to join this campaign; this is an imperative for the fight against,” she added.