The Northern Development Forum (NDF), an advocacy group in Ghana, has appreciated Government’s effort to mitigate the plight of the kayayei in the wake of the COVID lockdown.
While commending President Akufo-Addo for his decisive measures to stem COVID-19, the NDF in a statement issued April 3, observed that this pandemic has exposed the vulnerability and fragility of Ghanaians especially those in Northern Ghana.
“The most horrendous reports of human suffering as a result of the lockdown has been about the movement of the kayayei back to their communities in the Northern part of the country, it stated.
In view of this, the NDF made a series of observations and proposals to mitigate the plight nd exodus of Kayayei as well as the poor situations in the five Regions in Northern Ghana.
Signed by Major Albert Don Chebe (Rtd), Chairman of NDF, the Statement noted that “all the five regions in Northern Ghana have rather porous borders, few officials and are also ill-equipped with resources.”
The the group therefore appealed for increased border vigilance, including the deployment of the military to augment the efforts of the immigration officials and provision of adequate logistics.
It expressed worry that “there is no single approved center for Covid-19 testing in the whole of Northern Ghana,” lamenting that “there are two research centers in Navrongo and Kintampo and other regional hospitals and wonder if these could not easily be upgraded to undertake testing for COVID-19.”
According to the NDF, “This would ease the national burden on the Accra and Kumasi research centers and will enable them to be effective in the national fight against coronavirus.”
The group called for fair and equitable distribution of the Personal Protection Equipment to Northern Ghana and other developed regions.
The statement also observed that the socio-cultural practices and behaviours have a great potential to nullify the national effort at fighting the COVID-19.
“We are therefore calling for a targeted support mechanism for religious and traditional leaders in Northern Ghana to engage in systematic efforts at Social Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) on covid-19 and public health in general to stem the devastating impact of the pandemic.”
“We have noted that in anticipation of the lockdown of Accra and Kumasi, mass exodus of female head porters called Kayayei would occur,” it stated.
According to the statement, “we know of the dominant communities which thus kayayees returned and it includes Tolon, Savelugu, Nasia, Wale Wale and Nyankpala.”
The Northern advocacy group called for comprehensive testing of these targeted communities that have received a mass influx of kayayee, saying that “we believe this will improve the Governments tracking of cases.
The NDF further noted with particular appreciation the efforts made to restrain the mass movement of some of the kayayee back to Northern Ghana.
“We know that this is a very difficult decision to make in balancing individual fundamental rights with the promotion of the common good especially that the fastest way of spreading this deadly disease is through human contact and movement,” the statement stressed.
Concluding, the NDF stressed that “we cannot talk about vulnerabilities without some of the communities in Northern Ghana that were devastated by rainstorms recently.”
It commiserated with the victims for the losses and harm that they have experienced and assured the President and Government of Ghana of their fullest co-operation and support in the common battle to defeat the covid-19 pandemic.
