Features
COVID-19 and Ghanaian migrants in Finland
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many deaths and made others sick. It is, indeed, putting a huge burden on healthcare systems in many countries.
The economic and health effect of the pandemic has hit communities in different ways in many sectors, and migrants and other minority or marginalised populations have become more vulnerable.
In Finland, there are strategies for people, including migrants, can access and utilise the opportunities in the Finnish social and health system. Many migrants, including those in the Ghanaian community, are aware of these opportunities and are taking advantage of the opportunities.
Structural problems
Research and media reports have shown in many countries that there are structural or societal factors that result in quite high rates of infection among migrants, when compared with the majority population.
It is suggested that for example language barrier, the nature of the work of migrants in professions where working from home is not possible, etc.
Overall, many people (and not just migrants) have lost their jobs or seen their income reduced drastically when their work schedules were slashed because many companies struggled to make sales during the lockdowns.
Many Ghanaian migrants have looked for different ways to make ends meet and they continue to look for avenues to bounce back with their economic resources.
Adhering to safety protocols
In all this, Ghanaian migrants and others continue to make great efforts to avoid becoming infected with the disease by adhering to the safety protocols such as social distancing, not hugging or shaking hands, wearing of masks, regularly washing of hands or using hand sanitisers, etc.
As vaccines are being administered to people, I can imagine how many Ghanaian migrants here have embraced the vaccination, which is to help control or minimise the effect of the virus on patients.
According to key health institutions and experts, vaccines are an important part of mitigating the effects of COVID-19 as they reduce the severity of the symptoms in case one becomes infected.
Some friends here and elsewhere have taken the first and second shots and are doing okay. They are so elated to have had that opportunity. They can have opportunities once they have life, and COVID-19 cannot stop them if they keep safe.
Social networks, migrant associations and information
Social networks of family, friends, and migrants associations have become important points for securing information and education about the corona virus situation among migrants. These networks create an important social capital as well as an outlet for sharing and gaining information or knowledge.
Public agencies, migrant associations and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Finland have been publishing information to help educate people about preventing corona virus infections.
Social media has become an important outlet for disseminating information and many migrant groups or associations are using these platforms and virtual meetings to educate their members.
Generally, migrant associations formally create awareness among their members and other migrants, usually in collaboration with some Finnish institutions, and are thus an important tool for several migrants to be positively active and to get their interest and claims heard.
As I wrote previously, the role of migrant associations acting as bridge-builders for the integration and inclusion of migrants through participation in the decision making process and by acting as a representative voice is highly appreciated in Finland.
A positive outlook
Ghanaian migrants in Finland are generally keeping a positive mind and hoping for things to get better in the near future with the COVID-19 situation.
They know that the Finnish healthcare system, one of the best in the world, has a comprehensive healthcare service that caters for every resident in the country.
Migrants know that as residents they can count on and readily access good healthcare service delivery in Finland. That’s all!
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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BY ROBERT EKOW GRIMMOND-THOMPSON
