Co-Founder and Head of Programmes of Generational Stewards for Antimicrobials
BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA
Tom Mann once said, “The future of the world belongs to the youth of the world, and it is from the youth and not from the old, that the fire of life will warm and enlighten the world.”
And it is in that same thought, that experts in the global health sector have resolved that involving the youths in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) awareness is a step in the right direction.
The World Health Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), reports that “youths play a pivotal role in advocating for increased political and public support to combat AMR across sectors and in raising awareness of AMR as a pressing social issue.”
Also the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that “AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.”
And pursuant to this, on the third day (Monday 20 November) of the World Antimicrobial Awareness Week Campaign for Africa, several speakers who spoke on AMR One Health Multisectoral Collaboration and Governance; said it was imperative to include the youths in raising awareness on the matter.
Doctor Anima Sirma from Veterinary Services in Kenya, said in her country they were involving the youths on AMR awareness in several ways, one of which was the introduction of primary education books on AMR, as the subject is being taught.
Doctor Sirma further said that during this WAAW 2023, “there are also other specific activities for the youth and even some webinar, where they are also involved.”
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it was reported that they had decided to start with the young people in terms of AMR awareness, “because for adults, their habits die hard but with the young ones, there can be behavioral change.
“They (young people) can tell their parents that we were told that for you to use antibiotics, you need to have a prescription. “This can work, we have done this in DRC; we have also gone to the churches and even used football to raise awareness on AMR.”
Presenting on Zimbabwe, Dr Tapfumanei Mashe, an AMR Project Coordinator, said they had actively involved youths in AMR awareness.
He revealed that as part of WAAW Africa 2023, they had organized a high schools soccer tournament on raising awareness on AMR as well as the AMR debate.
Dr Mashe further added that the Generational Stewards for Antimicrobials was also established and that the AMR Awareness walkathon which has been set for Friday, had also been organized by the youths.
Speaking to this reporter on the sidelines of WAAWAfrica 2023, Co-founder and Head of Programmes of Generational Stewards for Antimicrobials, Ngoni Veddie Muzondo, a pharmacy student at the Harare Institute of Technology, said the programme was established last year so as to raise AMR awareness as well as other health issues.
“Generational Stewards for Antimicrobials is a One Health AMR platform for young people especially students so what we are doing is we are trying to raise awareness amongst the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary students so that they become agents of change.
“We want transformation in these young people so that we engage them whilst they are still young and when they grow older, they will be responsible for all the global health issues that will be happening within the world,” said Muzondo.
He said having students involved in this fight will help curb this rising global health concern which is responsible for millions of deaths globally.
Muzondo also revealed that when they started, they gathered all the healthcare students who were interested in global health, before they designated them to various roles.
“So one of the leading projects that we are doing at the moment is the Glen View and Mufakose Education and Antimicrobial Resistance Programme, to raise awareness amongst the 28 primary and secondary schools that are in Glen View and Mufakose.
“So far we have managed to cover three schools so we are trying to reach out to each and every primary and secondary student so that we create Antimicrobial Resistance Clubs that will actually act as repositories or sites where these students will get knowledge on antimicrobial resistance.
“And we are also targeting teachers because teachers are the ones that educate these students and they are the guardians when they are at school, so we want to have these teachers trained on antimicrobial resistance and other global health issues like water and sanitation hygiene,” added Muzondo.
He also revealed that they focus on leadership so as to equip the students with all the necessary skills needed in the future.
“We are also focusing on sexual reproductive and health issues so that these students whenever they are doing their programmes, they understand the rights that they have as students.
“We are also focusing on career guidance; we don’t want students to get to university without knowing what they want as individuals, so we want to catch them young as early as primary school level, so that they know what they want. “We work with the One Health AMR team in Zimbabwe, the World Health Organisation and several other stakeholders within the AMR fields,” said Muzondo.
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