The Ministry of Youth and Sports, in coordination with the Ministry of Public Health, has launched a new initiative, which is the national campaign to urge citizens to register on the platform for the COVID-19 vaccine across Lebanon through scout associations.
The National News Agency reported today that the Minister of Youth and Sports, Vartini Ohanyan, sent a letter to the Lebanese Scout Federation mentioning the weak turnout and slow response from citizens to the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 via the platform launched by the Lebanese government, where the percentage of registered individuals has not exceeded 15% of the population residing in Lebanon so far. The letter from the Ministry of Youth and Sports called for a discussion with the Lebanese Scout Federation regarding the idea of launching a national campaign to encourage and assist citizens in registering on the vaccination platform in all areas of Lebanon where scout leaders are present.
The ministry's letter indicated that the campaign will focus on two main objectives: raising community awareness about the necessity of receiving the vaccine to ensure community immunity and assisting individuals who are unable to register or lack the ability and knowledge, especially the elderly. Ohanyan expressed hope in her letter for the Lebanese Scout Federation to disseminate information to scout associations and appoint a general coordinator for the campaign, while considering the geographical distribution of the scout associations according to their location. Furthermore, she requested accurate statistics from each association regarding the towns and villages covered by the campaign and the number of citizens targeted and assisted.
It is noteworthy that this initiative followed a meeting held by Minister Vartini Ohanyan with representatives of the Lebanese Scout Federation, including Vice President Leader Youssef Melki and Chief Commissioner Leader Faiza Qanbar. The initiative arises from the national educational role that the ministry should play in cooperation with the Lebanese Scout Federation, which will implement the mission aimed at encouraging citizens to register on the vaccination platform and assisting them as well.
