As schools prepared to re-open in Ghana on the 18th January 2021, the Ghana Education Service launched the Back to School Campaign. As part of Sabre’s collaboration and support to the 12 districts that they work with across the Central, Western and Eastern Regions of Ghana, teachers and Ghana Education Service officers volunteered to visit communities to talk to parents/carers and other community members on the importance of children returning to school and COVID-19 safety to ensure children would be safe at school and at home.

They have also been delivering our COVID-19 response work since the summer, via the “Say, Sing, Shine” radio programme we were able to use the established network of radio stations to share key Back to School messages. We worked with the Ghana Education Service’s ‘Back to School’ team from the Girl Child and Guidance & Counselling Department at the district level, to share broadcasts to sensitise parents/carers and the general public on COVID-19 safety at schools and schools reopening guidelines.

In addition to the radio messaging, they have COVID-19 packs for kindergarten classrooms which include veronica buckets, liquid soap and hand sanitizer and they have produced information flyers and stickers for distribution across the 12 districts they work with. These materials share key safety messages and measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. They also used video to share safety messages, which they distributed across established WhatsApp groups with kindergarten teachers and Ghana Education Service officers, who are now sharing the video with their colleagues and parents of children in the schools they work in.