Sekou Cissé, 85, is a Guinean traditional healer, and one of the longest serving Guinean Red Cross volunteers. He began volunteering over 40 years ago in Faranah, translating into local languages for the Guinean Red Cross service members. He also volunteered for more than 20 years at the Faranah Regional Hospital where, as a traditional healer, he helped the medical unit by riding his bike into communities to convince people to go to hospitals for treatment instead of relying on traditional medicine alone.
Today, Sékou Cissé volunteers as a community health educator for the USAID-funded Community Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness Program (CP3) implemented by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to reach out to people in communities in the Faranah region and raise awareness about epidemic diseases.
One of the communities that benefits from this USAID activity is the sub-prefecture of Beindu, 30 kilometers from the city of Faranah. In 2017, when the activity was launched in the region, families were reluctant to get their children vaccinated against diseases like polio, measles, and other diseases affecting children and this was causing a lot of child deaths in the communities.
Dr. Yuma Taido, delegate of PC3, states: "Following our assessment at the local level, we understood that a community approach was the best option and an effective way to fight against rumors, to counter misinformation, and to rebuild public confidence.”
Sékou Cissé, being from the same community, having lived all his life in the region, speaking the same language as the beneficiaries, and possessing the appropriate cultural understanding, led awareness sessions in the communities that were clear and well understood by the local population.
"I speak three local languages and a little French. “It makes my job easier because I know that at least one of the three local languages is spoken in the homes I visit," he says.
"Following our visits to the communities, people had the opportunity to ask questions and to dispel the doubts that some rumors had inspired about epidemic diseases and vaccines. "Now they accept help for their parents affected by diseases, and for their livestock affected by animal diseases," Cissé said.
"Thanks to this activity, our communities are cleaner, our families and livestock are healthier, and our lives are better," says Mr. Sekouba Camara, Sub-prefect of Beindu.
The people of Beindu have appealed to local authorities to provide them with Covid-19 vaccines, demonstrating the effectiveness of the local approach adopted by CP3.
The CP3 activity has reached out to more than 50,000 people in communities of the Faranah region with plans to extend the activities to other regions of Upper Guinea.
Ousmane Condé, USAID Guinea