Lagos State, Nigeria Health Watch partner, embark on three months sensitization Fellowship to manage misinformation
The Lagos State Government and Nigeria Health Watch, a not-for-profit health communication and advocacy organization that seeks to advocate better health for Nigerians, have come together for a three-month sensitization engagement for the sole aim of managing misinformation in the state.
This much was made public at a Stakeholders’ Engagement to launch the Misinformation Management Fellowship in Lagos State at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Alausa, Ikeja, on Tuesday, August 20, 2024.
Badejo Olusegun Isaiah, Health Educator, Lagos State speaking about the three months sensitization engagement in the state said, “The word Fellowship is just semantics, what it really means is agreement, union, working together between the government and our development partners in carrying out community engagements, vis-a-vis sensitization in our communities on health issues. The health programmes cut across the following: public health emergencies, like cholera, diphtheria, covid-19, monkey pox, et cetera. We have the reproductive health, which is made up of maternal and new born, child, infant and adolescent, and nutrition. And also non-communicable diseases like malaria, diabetes, sickle cell diseases, etc. And then we have immunization, all aspects of immunization of our children.”
The Chief Health Educator added that the engagement is also designed to create demand generation for health programmes in the state. “What we are trying to do is to run a three-month of community engagement to sensitise the people in all these things, it is majorly to create demand generation for health programmes, especially the ones I just mentioned. Then number two is to equip our people with precautionary measures to face any outbreak of heath emergencies, with a major focus on hand-washing and soap and water, environmental cleanliness. Then we should ensure that we maintain high level of hygiene which hand washing is just one of them. All these things are geared towards protecting the community against contacting these infectious diseases.”
Badejo also spoke on some of the diseases affecting the children which also need sensitization. “In addition, we are going to protect the children, provide them with anti-bodies that will protect them when they come in contact with some of these diseases. So while we are using this medium for the people to be protected, we are also using this opportunity to create demand for people to take some of these health programmes especially at the health facilities, whether at the primary health centres, secondary care centres or tertiary care centres. All these centres are available even at the health posts, they are available for people to go and access these care services and programmes.”
Mr Badejo stated also that the misinformation management fellowship would run in three districts covering 10 Local Governments in the first instance. “We are doing that in 10 local governments of three health districts in the state: Health District 1, Health District 5, and Health District 6. So the local governments that fall into these health districts making 10 local governments include Alimosh, Ikeja, Ifako-Ijaye, Agege, Shomolu and the rest, we are covering them this last quarter of the year. But for next year, we are going to another three Health Districts, which also comprises 10 local governments.”
He also stated that five members are trained from each district to mobilise and sensitise people in the local governments. “The health educators are the ones to mobilise and sensitize people in the local governments in that district.”
On the partnership with Nigeria Health Watch, Badejo stated, “You know we have so many partners in the state, they have their jurisdictions, so those that are supposed to cover reproductive health would not come and cover public health emergency. But for Nigeria Health Watch Foundation, the organization takes care of all the health programmes I have mentioned and also, apart from sensitization or equipping the people, we also ensure that we are able to correct all the misconceptions, manage misinformation, manage myths, manage disinformation because these mar the utilization of healthcare services by our people in the community.”
Abara Erim, Programme Manager, Nigeria Health Watch Nigeria said, “This is the initiative of Nigeria Health Watch that empowers some subnational structures and community stakeholders to address misinformation, we all know what happened in 2014 when misinformation was spread not on conventional media but in the community which led to widespread fear and people adopting risky behavior like bathing salt with water just to prevent Ebola which is not true, and even during covid in 2020, we saw what misinformation did among our community members, so the Nigeria Health Watch started this initiative to address most of those concerns. We know that while some have access to right information, some do not have, so we have that information inequity; that is what the misinformation management Fellowship is trying to address.”
Speaking on the significance of Lagos in Nigeria, Erim said, “We started last year with Niger State, now Lagos, you know Lagos is the centre of excellence, and something that affects Lagos State, to a large extent, affects other states in Nigeria, and whatever that affects any state in Nigeria affects Lagos. So we are particular about doing this in Lagos State because people in Lagos, they are aware, they are informed, and they know how they go about things, it is going to go a long way in Nigeria and every other states in Nigeria.”
On the empowerment of the health educators he stated that the information they receive is as potent as the intervention. “We say information is now an intervention, for example, you need to know you need to take vaccine, you need to know you need to wash your hands, you need to know you need to wear face mask during covid crisis, if you don’t have that information, you won’t be able to take action, so information is also an intervention. And at the hierarchy of prevention, we have primary prevention that talks about information, communication, so the training we are giving these people is to help them to know the right information, separate the myth from fact, and also help them to empower their community members to build that resilience against misinformation.”
On importance of the training given to the selected persons from the districts, Erim said “So it is no more a question of if the next pandemic comes, it is a matter of when will it come, you don’t know when it is going to happen, we need to be prepared so that when it happens, it might happen where quality health services may not be available or at a time when workers may not be readily available, so if these people are empowered to address and fight misinformation, they will help to educate the people within their community.”
Nigeria Health Watch is a not-for-profit health communication and advocacy organisation that seeks to advocate for better health for Nigerians. The mission is to ensure that Nigerians have the tools and knowledge to make informed decisions about their health.
Since 2020, Nigeria Health Watch has been at the forefront of combating health misinformation through social and community listening, capacity building and system strengthening efforts. Through the project, it has successfully equipped community leaders, traditional and religious leaders, civil society organizations, people living with disabilities, and journalists, among others, to identify and debunk health misinformation, reaching thousands of people both online and offline.
Given the recent cholera outbreak and the rise of infectious diseases, Nigeria Health Watch is collaborating with Lagos state to implement the Health Misinformation Management Fellowship program for key community gatekeepers. The fellowship program aims to address the rampant spread of health misinformation, especially during infectious disease outbreaks and public health interventions like vaccinations.
