All twenty five mobilizers were present to participate in the program
Set up with moblizers where usage of condoms and aqua tabs was explained and sold.
‘Apart from the opportunity, they also sold 1440 pieces of condoms and 240 strips aqua tabs to a lot of people at the festival. They told me there was at least a thousand people present that day and were happy to have so many people in one place to speak to’.
When YPEP a local NGO working on the BCS project were invited by the community’s assembly man to mount a stand at a major Ga festival and speak to attendants about their health topics, they were extremely happy about the opportunity. Homowo is a yearly Ga festival that celebrates the harvest of its people. This festival has been held for centuries since the Gas migrated to Accra.
Every year thousands of people come through the festival grounds to participate in the festival and are mostly there throughout the duration of the festival. This year was no different. YPEP were there first thing in the morning to makes sure they did not miss anyone. All twenty five mobilizers that are in YPEP’s community were in attendance to speak to the people at the festivities about Family Planning, Water Sanitation, Hygiene, Breastfeeding, and Malaria Prevention. Apart from the opportunity to educate, they also sold 1440 pieces of condoms and 240 strips aqua tabs to a lot of people at the festival. They told me there was at least a thousand people present that day and were happy to have so many people in one place to speak to.
Their work of speaking to people about the health topics mentioned above was made very easy by the people because they asked a lot of questions, which directed the conversation to the issues that were really important to them. They helped the mobilizers know which details of the topics to emphasis on and speak more about. For example, there were a lot of questions with regards to family planning so the mobilizers spent a lot of the time there talking about family planning and birth control options. They told them about the advantages of the different options and some side effects that some have.
All the people spoken to were also reminded to visit the clinic and get more information on any questions that may come up after the event. They were told where in the clinic to go and get information on family planning. YPEP were given the feedback that there had been a lot more enquiries in the clinic on a daily basis since the event.
