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COVID-19: ADDRESSING VACCINE HESITANCY AND RESISTANCE IN JAMAICA, WI.

October 16th, 2021

COVID-19: ADDRESSING VACCINE HESITANCY AND RESISTANCE TO TAKING THE VACCINATION IN JAMAICA, WI.

Give Them a Hand Foundation is painfully aware that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected lives all around the world and has taken a toll on almost every aspect of society. Jamaica is no exception, and in fact has one of the highest levels of vaccine hesitancy and resistance in the world. We are committed to doing something to correct that.

Our plan is to host a Vaccine Health and Wellness event on November 19, 2021. It will be streamed on YouTube and Facebook and the GTAH website. We are also discussing the possibility of partnering with one or more TV outlets.

Presently, with our Jamaican partners, we are developing a program which we believe has an excellent chance of attracting the masses that will give us the opportunity to inform and educate. Our partners on the ground are the Medical Association of Jamaica, the Lions Clubs of New Kingston and Mandeville, and several University of the West Indies chapters in North America as well as a number of noted infectious disease specialists in the Caribbean

We are very aware that the Jamaican Government wants at least 70% of the population to be vaccinated. However, we do not expect people to turn out to hear scientists and health professionals speak about the pandemic and the vaccines. The intelligentsia may turn out to listen and view, but not hundreds of thousands of the general public which are the numbers we are expecting to attract.

We will have some popular artistes to entertain people and speakers with whom they are familiar. Speakers will deliver short, targeted messages. No statement will be longer than 4 minutes. PSA’s will be 60 seconds. We will record Man-in-the-Street interviews in Half-Way-Tree, Mandeville and May Pen and play the myths and misinformation that they repeat, rebutting each as they appear. The entire program will be pre-recorded.

Speakers who have confirmed are Dr. Morais Guy, MP and Shadow Minister of Health; Professor Peter Figueroa, University of the West Indies; Professor Swinburne Augustine (Dominica); Professor Winston Davidson, as well as Speakers from Sierra Leone and the World Health Organization (WHO); Harold Lovell, Former MP, Antigua, and Barbuda, and Dr. Joy St. John (CARPHA). Mr Leachim Semaj, Faith leader, Rev Newton Dixon and Dr Abrahams are all on board as well. We have invited Dr. Christopher Tufton, Minister of Health, and hope to have him on board shortly.

The following artists have agreed to perform in the event: Nadine Sutherland, Christopher Martin, Ding Dong, Fab5, Menace Da General (Sierra Leone), and Daphne (Cameroonian superstar). Frankie Campbell is the musical director for the event. The Mighty Sparrow and Patrick Ewing have agreed to record PSA’s in support of vaccination. Fab5 will be the musical director; Phase 3 Productions will do the video recording and Big Yard Studios will be the venue for the artistes to perform.

We are still in need of funding, and we are asking concerned global citizens who are reading this to assist by donating to cover the costs of production, which will amount to US$25,000. Working together we can save lives and improve health outcomes for COVID-19 in Jamaica and the Caribbean.

Africa Rise! 2020 – A FREE VIRTUAL FUNDRAISING EVENT

August 27th, 2020

Give Them a Hand Foundation and partners – Earth Rights Institute, Inc., the United African Congress along with Black Star News, Cool and Kosie Productions and the International Association of Applied Psychology – have been concerned about the poor health care infrastructure in most African countries for several years now.

The lack of dependable, easily accessible hospitals and medical centers has been put in the spotlight recently by the Covid-19 pandemic and spurred many well-meaning organizations to take action to help governments and the people in their fight against the pandemic.

As far as we know most of those organizations are providing masks and other PPE for vulnerable populations. Those are very much needed today. However, our coalition has decided on a project that will benefit the continent on a permanent basis and be able to address not only communicable diseases but those like malaria and yellow fever and also reduce the number of maternal and infant deaths that occur.

To realize this goal, GTAH and partners will host a virtual fundraising concert on 5 December 2020 to raise funds for the purchase of mobile clinics and to build medical centres in the more remote and underserved rural communities in the countries in Africa most in need.

In this first year of our effort, we will focus on a limited number of countries in each of the five regions of Africa. Note that a mobile clinic functioning from an anchor-base hospital can serve a number of villages within a wide area. They will also be equipped to facilitate telemedicine services.

Give Them a Hand Foundation, Earth Rights Institute (ERI), the International Association of Applied Psychology and The United African Congress (UAC), have a well-established history of hosting awareness-raising campaigns on behalf of Africa and the Diaspora. For example, ERI facilitated the creation of Eco-Villages in Nigeria, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory-Coast and Senegal. GTAH and UAC hosted a major awareness-raising forum and concert at the United Nations during the Ebola epidemic that plagued West Africa 2014-2015.

In addition, GTAH and UAC provided humanitarian relief for Hurricane Sandy victims in New York, Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans as well as for earthquake victims in Haiti. The collaboration continues to host an annual World Interfaith Harmony event in the United States of America.

CONCERT: The free virtual global concert “Africa Rise! 2020” has already engaged a number of top artists from the Caribbean, Africa, the USA and the UK. There will be stars from Broadway, Grammy winning tap dancers as well as a prominent dance troupe and familiar figures in cinema and fashion. In addition, we have brought on board dozens of sports stars from the world of football/soccer, cricket, the NBA, the NFL, and cycling.

EVENT TIMELINE AND DURATION: The date for the concert is 5 December 2020 for a duration of three hours.

LOGISTICS: The concert will be broadcast and live streamed on several platforms including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, African digital streaming channels and other social media outlets.

CONTRIBUTIONS AND DONATIONS: The concert will be interspersed with appeals for contributions, interesting features about Africa, and educational material. Donations will be made via mobile phone and website payment platforms as well as through direct interfaces during the live broadcast of the virtual show.

ORGANIZERS: Event conveners will be supported by a multi-talented team of music producers and authorized streaming providers with technological capacity to access rural community participation, and global viewers and donors.

GLOBAL TEAM:

Gordon Tapper, Founder, Give Them a Hand Foundation

Annie Goeke, Earth Rights Institute

Mohammed Nurhussein, Chairman, United African Congress

Stephanie Evans, Give Them A Hand Foundation

Judy Kuriansky, International Association of Applied Psychology

Milton Allimadi, Black Star News

PROJECT TO STOP THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 IN SOUTH KIVU, DRC

August 27th, 2020

GIVE THEM A HAND FOUNDATION, UNITED AFRICAN CONGRESS, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, HOPE AND HEALTH VISION:

PROJECT TO STOP THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 IN SOUTH KIVU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

The four organizations named above collaborated in the development of a pilot project to help stop the spread of Covid-19 in the community of Nyabibwe in the Territory of Kalehe, located in South Kivu, DRC. Supplementary objectives were to stimulate economic activity in the communities and to provide psycho-social and educational support for the people. The pilot project commenced on 20 June for one week.

GTAH, UAC and IAAP are all based in New York State but worked with Hope and Health Vision which is an NGO based in the DRC and also accredited in the United States. Hope and Health Vision, headed by Jean-Marie Bazibuhe, had psychologists and social workers on the ground as part of the team who would follow the steps the coalition outlined to implement the program. In New York the team comprised Gordon Tapper, Founder of GTAH and President of UAC, Dr Judy Kuriansky, Professor of Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University and representative of IAAP at the United Nations, and Stephanie Evans, Director of Education at Harlem Hospital in Harlem, New York, and Executive Director of GTAH. The project was financed from the personal funds of Gordon Tapper and Judy Kuriansky, with a contribution from United African Congress.

The project called for hiring women to sew 4,000 masks on their machines to the designs and standards established by WHO. The masks were to be distributed to approximately 2000 adults, male and female, preselected by the staff on the ground. The occasion of distributing the masks also served for educating recipients on the sanitation measures they needed to adopt in order to protect themselves from the infection. In addition to being trained in good sanitation practices they were also given psychosocial training intended to help them build their resilience in the face of an infection that was causing much fear and panic in the communities. The sanitation and the psychosocial information was provided by carefully crafted infographics and by the well-trained, qualified staff.

As this was a pilot project, persons who had come to receive masks and who also received training, were asked to fill out a questionnaire that sought to understand their fears and beliefs and responses to certain situations. The individuals were to return to the distribution/training center at the end of the week to provide feedback and to respond to a post-event questionnaire.

The third pillar of the project involved the installation of five handwashing stations located at key gathering points. They were provided with soap in the handwashing process and taught the proper way to wash their hands after touching objects in public or inadvertently shaking hands.

The date for the evaluation of the effectiveness of the pilot project has not yet been determined but will possibly be towards the end of September. At that time, the results will be released to community leaders, the NGO community and to the international agencies working in the DRC. Should the results prove to have had a positive effect on the people, by altering their behavior and reinforcing their ability to protect themselves from Covid19 and other contagious diseases, we will be seeking funding so as to enable us to support a much larger segment of the population of DRC.

It should be noted that while we cannot at this time provide the results of the pilot project we can say that there were several persons, adults and children, who turned out over a five day period and were very excited to be a part of the project.

SITE PHOTOS

Crowds of people eagerly awaiting hand-washing demonstrations:

Installing water barrel for hand-washing station:

Hand-washing demonstration:

Explanation of infographic on good sanitary practices:

Assistance and explanation on proper wearing of masks: