By Lukman Abdulmalik
HOTPEN– A Non-governmental organisation, Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD, has presented awards to three COVID -19 Vaccines Champions for their struggles in identifying and countering negative narratives as well as sensitizing the public to accept the Covid-19 Vaccine.
The program was implemented by CITAD under the project ‘Public Education on COVID-19 Vaccine Project’ with support from MacArthur Foundation with aims to sensitize the public on the importance of COVID-19 vaccine and the need to take it with a view to promoting uptake of the vaccine.
Hamza Ibrahim, Coordinator, Public Education on COVID-19, CITAD, said the Prize presentation ceremony of the competition was meant to inspire participants to educate people on the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the Vaccine using the social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube among others.
He added that “there is competition among the vaccine champions every month and the best three winners are selected and rewarded with gifts”.
Ibrahim added that the participants which were initially 98 but scaled down to 18 and finally three winners based on parameters used by the judges, are from six states, which includes: Kano, Kaduna, Kogi, Plateau, Bauchi and Borno.
However this has been the fourth round in which CITAD is presenting gifts to its COVID-19 vaccine champions.
Summayya Abdul emerged first position with 97 points from Kaduna, Mundi Ilyasu with 79 points from Kogi and Abdullahi Barau with 70 points Bauchi.
Therefore this month’s best three winners were presented with gifts such as refrigerator (1st position), plasma television (2nd position) and medium laptop for (3rd position).