COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of local culture and traditions in responding quickly and effectively to a health emergency. Communicating risks to communities, along with health promotion, must be done in collaboration with local authorities and in ways that are respectful of local culture and understood through the prism of local traditions. Community-based and local civil society organizations are key in this regard.
Culture, traditions, and support of local authorities are key to effective health promotion
COVID-19 has demonstrated the importance of local culture and traditions in responding quickly and effectively to a health emergency. Communicating risks to communities, along with health promotion, must be done in collaboration with local authorities and in ways that are respectful of local culture and understood through the prism of local traditions. Community-based and local civil society organizations are key in this regard.
In these photos, El Hadji Baytir Samba, the President of the Association of Community Health Workers of Senegal, is speaking to the community leaders in Bargny, a rural area near Dakar, about the challenges caused by COVID-19.
Baytir uses local music instruments, traditional cooking utensils and other tools to help community activists understand the importance of COVID-19 prevention and control.
Having collaborated with the World Health Organization on COVID-19 response, Baytir knows how important it is to engage local authorities in effectively communicating risks to communities. Baytir collaborates with the community’s mayor, who welcomed an open discussion about potential solutions to economic hardships affecting community health and livelihoods because of the pandemic. The mayor’s involvement also gave an opportunity to agree on solutions to other persistent health challenges beyond COVID-19.