WaterAid Ghana teams up Olympics for education on coronavirus

Wonder Club Accra Great Olympics’ spectacular performance in the 2020/2021 Ghana Premier League has attracted the attention of WaterAid Ghana to engage the club in a two–year COVID-19 education campaign.

Consequently, the UK-based not-for-profit organization, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the football club, one of Ghana's oldest traditional football clubs, and affectionately called Dade, to undertake a two-year community mobilization campaign.

WaterAid Ghana says its partnership with the Dade Club seeks to leverage on the publicity and exposure of the Wonder Club in the past as well as their current form, which is a manifestation on the league block.

“It’s our hope for this initiative to achieve its aim as a community support drive to alleviate challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic along the coastal areas of Accra,” Mr George Cobbina Yorke, Head of Policy, Advocacy and Campaign of WaterAid Ghana, said at the signing ceremony, in Accra.

Mr Yorke said his outfit was committed to using football as a social mobilization tool towards educating the people within the coastal vicinity in Accra.

“We are glad to have Great Olympics on board in our push to get the education on COVID-19 adherence through to the coastal areas in Accra,” Mr Yorke said, adding, “the focus is to spread it across the other clubs going forward and we believe that could be addressing”.

According to Mr Yorke, WaterAid Ghana believes in a world where everyone everywhere had access to safe water, toilets and hygiene education.

It has therefore been working with people in the world’s poorest communities to build taps and toilets, campaign for change and bolster the skills of local families in 26 countries in the past 34 years.

Mr Ato Coleman, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Great Olympics, on his part, described the partnership as the best to thing to have happened especially when the majority of the club’s support base emanated from the coastal areas of Accra.

“The decision to bring these two entities together towards fighting this pandemic should be lauded because propagating the need to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols should be a priority especially in the coastal areas of Accra where our core supporters come from.

“We are ready to commence the education with community outreaches and together with WaterAid, I believe we are on course to help fight this pandemic in our communities,” Mr Coleman said.

Mr Amarkai Amarteifio, Board Chairman of Accra Great Olympics, thanked WaterAid for partnering with the club and highlighted that the rich history and performance of the club in recent years had put them in the position to lead this campaign.

Mr Yaw Atta Arhin, Chairman of the Coalition of NGO’s in Water and Sanitation, applauded the decision of the two organizations to come together to help bring behavioral change in areas where it was difficult to comply with the COVID-19 protocols.

Mr Cudjoe Fianoo, Chairman of the Ghana League Clubs Association (GHALCA), thanked Olympics for being the pacesetters in the trumpeting of the need to adhere to COVID-19 protocols, especially in communities where they had their support base.

Mr Fianoo, who is also the Executive Director of Olympics, said WaterAid’s decision to partner Olympics through football would achieve great success especially when the sport was loved by all Ghanaians.

“This is an initiative worth celebrating and I look forward to seeing it spread across other clubs to help in the fight against this canker that has deprived us for a very long time,” Mr Fianoo said.