TellZim Reporter
Civil Society Organization Adolescent Girls and Women Rights Forum has embarked on a drive to combat misinformation and spreading of rumours that have taken centre stage following the recent spike in Cholera cases in Masvingo province.
AGWRF director Priscilla Mafa confirmed the news adding that the organization has been doing rounds gathering information regarding false narratives pointing to Cholera in mining areas around Masvingo district with the aim of correcting the problem.
“AGWRF has been moving around gathering information (rumours) surrounding Cholera in Masvingo district with the objective of combating misinformation through dissemination of facts about the disease.
“The organization through Internews’ Rooted in Trust (2.0) local acceleration project is moving in mining communities around the district conducting community listening meetings on misinformation around the disease and other topical health issues,” said Mafa.
She also added that the implementation of the programmes would be done through both online and physical sessions with online having commenced last week while physical are set for May 29 onwards.
“We conduct focus group discussions with women and adolescent girls
in Masvingo Urban and mining communities which include Mashava, KwaSteven and Bhuka. The implementation commenced last week (online) and will be continued from May 29 (physically).
“The main idea behind the project is curbing misinformation trough gathering rumours around Cholera and other health issues before creating content which we will share on various platforms. On the content, we identify the rumour and provide the fact while we will also do films on the activities,” added Mafa.
Misinformation has been a major undoing fuelling the spread of diseases in the country especially in times pandemics like Cholera, Covid-19, HIV and AIDS among other diseases as rumour mongering takes centre stage making it difficult in some cases to handle and control the spread of the diseases.
