The Children Environmental Health Foundation (CEHF) in conjunction with Livingstone City Council, Zambia Environmental Management Agency and the Ministry of Health of Livingstone District Office recently conducted an awareness raising activity at Ngwenya Market in Livingstone on the national health guidelines as well as the impact of chemicals and wastes around the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking in an interview with CEHF Chairperson and Country Coordinator Michael Musenga stated that the main goal of the activity was to capture data on the national health guidelines and monitor the compliance levels at the market in relation to the pandemic.
Mr Musenga explained that the awareness raising activity was set as a reminder for people to continue adhering to the national health guidelines as also established by the World Health Organization.
“Countries in Europe have had experienced adverse conditions of the pandemic and with the cases totaling 63.1 million cases so far, we really need to take all the guidelines seriously,” he said.
The CEHF boss stated that Zambia sat on 17,589 cases so far and this should not call for any sort of hesitation as the death toll in other countries was quite alarming.
Mr. Micheal Musenga explained to marketeers on the importance of protecting themselves from COVID-19 and as well as the impact it could pose on the community if they did not prevent it or stop it from spreading.
He emphasized on the need of handwashing, sanitizing and social distancing as one of the common and most recommended actions.
In a noble gesture, CEHF also donated hand washing materials such as a hand washing basin, bucket, hand sanitizers and soap to the market Committee as a sample for monitoring COVID-19 hygiene compliance.
Meanwhile, Ngwenya ward councilor Mr Kelvin Maambo, thanked CEHF for this initiative and encouraged the people to adhere COVID-19 health guidelines as well as for coming to the community and aiding it with information around the local and global effects of the pandemic.
He stated that this was the second time the ward had a community program in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic conducted at the market and that the first time of a similar event was a major clean up market involving stakeholders like the Livingstone City council, Office of the Livingstone District Commissioner, Zambia Airforce, Zambia Army, schools, Livingstone District Health Office and civil society organizations.
The event awareness raising event started at 08:30hours and ended at 10:00 hours prior to which marketeers cleaned up the market from 06.00hrs to 08.00 hrs.
The activity was embraced by a good number of market committee members, school going children and marketeers with a unified purpose of stopping the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.