Covid-19 has had a significant impact on public health and safety, but despite this our community has worked together to help one another during the pandemic. This would not have been possible without the impact of volunteers and community heroes that have been working tirelessly to support those who are most vulnerable. 

      It is important for us to take the time to celebrate the work that has been done by individuals, charities, businesses, and organisations over the last few months and appreciate the positive stories despite the continued challenges of the pandemic last year. 

African Voice spoke with Mr Babatunde A Gbolade, Consultant Gynaecologist, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Community Leeds and Leeds African Communities Trust on how it felt helping the community during the Covid–19 pandemic.

Mr Gbolade said, “I felt gratified to have been the catalyst for obtaining a Leeds COVID-19 Champion micro-grant funding, coordinating the different facets of the campaign, encouraging getting the initial vaccine doses, and helping the vaccine booster drive. I have to emphasise that it was a team effort.”

Why helping the community has been important for you?

Helping the community overcome their fears and vaccine hesitancy has been important for me because of the stark reality of the disproportionate adverse impact of Covid-19 on minority ethnic communities and knowing that there are available effective measures to ameliorate it.

The importance of pulling together as a community to ensure everyone is getting their vaccines/boosters

With humans in the mix, the success or failure of any community-oriented project depends on carrying along community members. 

We identified the stakeholders and goals, involved community members, and communicated effectively through various media to ensure that community members got their vaccines/boosters.

Making sure people who have been hit hard by COVID-19/the pandemic are still being looked after.

The Leeds City Council funded the COVID-19 Multi-Ethnic Food Response programme over four months from March to July 2021, and Nigerian Community Leeds joined the scheme to ensure that staple Nigerian foods got included in the variety of raw multi-ethnic food provided. Nigerian Community Leeds continues to support those in the community who have been hard hit by Covid-19.

Why is it important to give the audience the drive to get boosted?

It is vital to stimulate the drive within community members to get booster vaccines because booster doses help maintain protection against the virus and help prevent the further spread of the virus amongst those who remain unvaccinated. 

GET BOOSTED NOW

Every adult in the country now needs to get a Covid-19 booster vaccine, because two doses does not give you enough protection against catching Omicron.

For us to keep each other safe and support the challenging work of our community 

heroes, please book your COVID-19 booster jab. 

The booster is the best way to help protect one another and our loved ones.

Get your booster now nhs.uk/covidvaccination

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