NGO Advocates Leveraging Arts for Health Education

Gideon Arinze in Enugu

A non-governmental organization (NGO), Art for Health Naija, has advocated the need for governments at all levels and individuals to leverage arts as a formidable tool for health education.

Convener of the NGO, Rose-Camile Aneke made this known yesterday while inspecting a wall health mural painted at the Centre for Memories in Enugu state by the NGO as part of its efforts to create awareness about pandemic outbreaks and epidemics.

She noted that part of reasons why Nigeria continues to battle disease outbreaks is because of the lack of awareness about preventive measures and how to stay safe.

She explained that the centre was chosen for the painting because it regular receives visitors both children and adults, noting that the murals will help to pass proper health information and change behaviours.

“For everyone who walks into the centre looking at these images, they are picking one health information or the other,’ she said.
“One of the murals shows a rat and bread which speaks to the lassa fever where rats are the carriers and teaches that we should not come in contact with items that have been contaminated by rats, another one tries to encourage vaccination in our communities,”.

She noted that art is a form of expression whicj helps to immortalise messages, hence the need to leverage it, beyond radio and TV for creating health awareness.

On his part, the Director at the Centre for Memories, Iheanyi Igboko said that the paintings and their messages will help to educate children and their guardians who always visit the centre.

“From the paintings in the mural, you will see that these are things that children can easily relate to as well as their caregivers and parents,” he said.