HUNDREDS of Muslims in the south-western part of Nigeria have been sensitised to the prevention of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic by Al-Habibiyyah Islamic Society.
The sensitisation programme, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, was themed ‘Sustaining COVID-19 Impact Mitigation Strategies, was held in Ibadan, Oyo State, with participants drawn from the six South West states.
Talking to journalists on the sideline of the event, the National Chief Imam of Al-Habibiyyah Society, Alhaji Fuad Adeyemi, said: “We are in Ibadan today because of two things. Number one: the way the new normal, COVID-19, has brought two things which are health and social challenges.
“In the area of health challenge, many people thought the virus is going, yes it may seem like that but we still need to prevent it. Then, secondly, we are looking at how to cope with the social or economic challenge which the new normal has brought. In the area of empowerment, we are working to see how to cushion the effect of this COVID-19 and also to re-establish the Al-Habibiyyah society in the South West.”
Speaking further on the empowerment programme of Al-Habibiyyah, Adeyemi said: “We started what we call Al-Habibiyyah Zakat and Empowerment Foundation. With that, we have been empowering people even before the arrival of COVID-19 but we have to scale it up. You know that not everybody was able to get zakat, we have to look for another organisation to be able to complement the effort of the zakat foundation.
“We established what we call Do Something Initiative where we keep money and work with some financial institutions so that they will be able to lend our people money without any interest and we are going to be the collateral. It is important to note that anybody can benefit, irrespective of religion.”
One of the speakers, Director of Nursing Services (Clinical) at the Oyo State Hospital Management Board, Alhaja Risqat Toyosi Nasir, in a lecture entitled ‘COVID-19 and You’, said: “We believe that there is COVID-19 but what can I do or what can you do in order for us to prevent and control this pandemic that is causing pandemonium?
“It has been observed that though we are recording reduced cases, there is still community transmission of COVID-19. We cannot continue to allow that and people are forgetting gradually that the virus is still very much around. Some other countries are experiencing the second wave of the virus which they say is even deadlier than the previous one.”
“Do we have to wait until we have the second one? No, we do not pray for that. It is on this note that we call on our people to always ensure they take precautionary measures to reduce the spread of the virus.”
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