BREAKING THE SILENCE, 2014 Breaking The Silence | Page 31

#KEEP
NIGERIA
EBOLA
FREE
Ebola gave to us the opportunity to
implement the Adelaide Statement
on Health in All Policies, which
highlights an inter-ministerial and
inter-departmental approach to
health. Health is our collective effort
and as was evident in the Nigerian
Ebola outbreak, the collective effort
of federal, state and local
governments can do great things.
To #KeepNigeriaEbolaFree, we as a
country must do everything to
facilitate and sustain that healthy
collaboration. Health is too crucial
and resource-intense for us to leave
our coordination to chance. This is
partly why our healthcare system in
Nigeria is structured to
accommodate clear roles for a
disease like Ebola. Now we need all
actors at all levels of government to
continue working together. We
must also sustain this health sector
awakening in tackling other disease
burdens Nigeria is battling with.
5. Sustained Community Action
and Participation
We can only #KeepNigeriaEbolaFree
when we accept that our country
and government need our
participation to succeed.
Community action is about
individuals and communities getting
actively involved in the decision-
making process, especially where
those decisions will affect their
lives.
The role of each individual, family,
community and business, becomes
more definitive by the day. Nigeria
as a rich country needs every one of
the 170 million who make up her
human capital, individually and in
organisations, to be actively
involved in all issues concerning her
survival.
In the battle against Ebola, we must
remember that we did not wait to
be told everything; we stepped up
and started solving our problems.
Ebola Containment Trust Fund
rallied organized private sector to
raise resources for the containment,
Samsung, Tecno, Airtel, Etisalat,
MTN, Total, Shell all put our monies
where our mouths were. We
supported government with
information and donations,
compliance and volunteering. Those
in government worked round the
clock to determine the right
decisions in collaboration with our
development partners. We worked
as a country! Families complied,
churches and mosques preached,
transporters called for directives and
implemented it, airlines changed
protocols, travelers waited extra
hours. That is how health gains are
made.
To sustain this new height and
#KeepNigeriaEbolaFree, we must
not lose our hold of these five
things, and we shall see our country
remain safer and healthier for it.
To greater heights!
AMSUL Digest 2014