COVID-19 Anti-Stigmatization Campaign: Private Sector Fund trains 300 employers, HR practitioners

The Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund has broadened its reach in the training of persons for the Fund’s anti-stigmatization campaign against COVID-19 by training three hundred (300) persons from the Ghana Employers’ Association and the Institute of Human Resource Management Practitioners (IHRMP).

The training programme is part of the COVID-19 Private Sector Fund’s initiative to curtail incidents of stigmatization against COVID-19 recovered persons, frontline workers and their family members.

Apart from training persons from the security institutions, health institutions, among others, the Fund saw the need to train Employers as well as Human Resource practitioners as they manage and interact with employees on a daily basis.

In the three-day virtual sessions, about three hundred employers and human resource persons were tutored on the general knowledge on COVID-19 related psycho-social challenges and the most appropriate way of educating Ghanaians across the country, the psychological impact on persons who are stigmatized after recovery and the myths around COVID-19 rrecoveries. The training highlighted the need for employers and management of organizations to initiate COVID-19 competency protocol.

Senyo Hosi, Managing Trustee of the COVID-19 Private Sector Fund, mentioned that it was important to include employers and human resource practitioners in these training interventions because quite recently, it was observed that some of the infections were passed on amongst work colleagues and those who recover are likely to face stigmatization at the workplace.

“We have heard reports of people contracting the disease at the workplace. Such occurrences are inevitable because while some organizations can work from home, others will need to have person to person interaction before the work can be done. These organizations definitely have high exposure risks. Nonetheless, we are aware some may recover and they will have to deal with yet another problem; stigmatization.

This is why we have included the employers and human resource practitioners in our training program to ultimately help their organizations”.

Dr. Ebenezer Agbetor, Executive Director of the Institute of Human Resource Management Practitioners (IHRMP), explained that we started experiencing stigmatization, hence the training has been timely for practitioners, not just for their personal benefit but in managing such incidents at the workplace.

“We have been enlightened by the training and it has dispelled myths and misinformation hanging around COVID-19. The fear is reducing and managing cases has become easy because practitioners understand it better.”

The ‘Let Love Lead. End The Stigma’ anti-stigmatization campaign is an initiative of the COVID -19 Private Sector Fund, sponsored by the Ghana National Petroleum Authority (GNPC), with support from the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Ghana Psychological Association (GPA), Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and Global Media Alliance.