UDs, war against COVID 19

Student delegates trained on risk communication

Dschang,UDs/SIC-04/06/21.The University of Dschang on the 4^th of June 2021 organized a conference at the Conference Hall (Amphi 1000) of the University of Dschang under the watchful eyes of the co-organisers on behalf of Africa One Health University Network (AFROHUN), Prof Marc Kouam of the Faculty of Agronomy and Agricultural Science and Dr Raspail Carrel Founou of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science which targeted mainly the pandemic Covid 19. Organized under the theme ‘Training of students: Risk communication and community engagement in the Covid context, the conference which kicked started at 2 : 30pm aimed at training students by impacting knowledge about the reality and the existence of COVID 19. The two expositions done centered on the notion of one health concepts which to the different experts cut across and an interrelated concept that touches on man, animal and the environment. A vivid conclusion was arrived at by the different experts who reiterated on the collegial relationship between animals, human and the environmental health. The conference aimed at establishing the relation between these three thus developing risk communication tools on COVID 19 that can be used to sensitize the university community and the general public. This accounts for the reason why the main target were student delegates 15 of  whom were trained during this conference and empowered to act like ambassadors to the vision that aims at combatting. Key messages were developed in the fight against the pandemic with appropriate channels and platforms to interact and engage with the community. The experts expressed their satisfaction which was tied to the fact that other organizations like AFROHUN, USAID, ECOHEALTH alliance and Berkeley of the University of California acted like an additional impetus that strengthened this pursuit. Covid 19 is a threat at this time not just in Cameroon but the world over and to ensure safety of the university community such conferences that sensitize the population remain paramount. In the conference, communication of risk factors and the engagement of the university community were some of the key issues mentioned. This requires an exchange of information from experts to non-experts thus the students who were trained will act as facilitators to ensure the transmittion of information. The different channels of communications could be local Media, club presidents, social media by means of videos, text messages, training sessions, meetings just to name a few. ‘This is why we have created a whatsapp group to enable this transmittion’, professor Marc Kouam submitted. This conference will benefit the University of Dschang in that it help fight the spread of the pandemic within the university community. Most of the participants who took part in the conference expressed satisfaction for the knowledge acquired and showed their interest to act like ambassadors in the fight against the pandemic Covid 19.L.D