By Amin Kef Sesay
On the 17th September 2020, the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited (SLBL) awarded attractive prizes to members of staff who emerged as winners in the company’s COVID-19 awareness ongoing competition which was held at its Staff Canteen within the Wellington Industrial Estate.
Two months ago, the company announced that it will organize a competition among its members of staff and contractors to challenge them for those who produce the best home-made video on the practice of COVID-19 preventive measures.
The rationale behind the competition, it was registered by Management of the company, is to sustain and enhance the awareness of COVID-19 among members of staff, their families and also to promote the control measures put in place by health experts in order to curtail community spread of the virus.
It was highlighted that the message was to send self-made video footages with family members at home on any COVID-19 prevention practice to win attractive prices.
Relevant themes and the scope of the video footages include different topics such as: “The Proper Use of Face-Masks”, “The Practice of Social Distancing”, “The Hand-Washing Practice” (with alcohol based sanitizers and/or soap and water), the Non Shaking of Hands or Touching of Mouth, Nose and Eyes, Avoiding Public Gatherings (meetings, funerals, parties, weddings, etc.), Staying Home and Keeping Safe if Sick and Calling 117 for help. The given deadline for the submission of footages was one week.
Various personnel contributed by sending their footages which were carefully reviewed by the P&S Committee. Ending the video challenge, the P&S team received two submissions competing for the grand prize.
It was against that backdrop that the company on the 17th September 2020 announced the names of the various winners of the first tournament of the competition as a fulfilment of the promise of a reward for their efforts. The first twenty videos received consolation prizes.
According to the Head of Human Resources at SLBL, Zorah Anthony most of their workers are safe in their offices but are vulnerable in their homes and communities. “We need to know how our workers practice the COVID-19 measures in their private lives,” she underscored.
She furthered that there is no recorded case of their staff contracting the virus but in order to maintain that status they thought it wise to start a one hour and thirty seconds video competition in order for their members of staff to illustrate how to prevent themselves and families from contracting the coronavirus. Zorah Anthony said the initiative of staging the competition is geared towards a collaborative and knowledge-building approach for the fight against the coronavirus.
The Human Resources Manager encouraged members of staff to keep practising these preventive measures as anyone of them can emerge as a winner.
She intimated how employees and contractors have been asked to do another competition, which is an audio competition in order to spread the message on raising the awareness of COVID-19 and the preventive measures around it. “This competition that we have just concluded was based on video footages but the next competition will be an audio competition to come up with messages on how to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at home and in communities,” she explained.
The themes, according to her, remain the same: Use of face-mask sick, working from home when required and any other theme as recommended by the Ministry of Health.
She informed that participants could send all their recordings to their forum or on 078920214 and the deadline is three (3) weeks starting from the 17th September 2020. “There are more attractive prizes for the next set of winners,” she assured.
Corporate Relations Assistant of the Sierra Leone Brewery Limited, Unisa Conteh stated that the SLBL is using two approaches in its efforts to help combat the spread of the virus which are externally and internally based. He said since the coronavirus break out in the country they have made various external interventions one of which is donating Personal Protective Equipment to residents within their operational area, the Wellington Industrial Estate and even beyond through Councillors and Members of Parliament of those localities.
He furthered that before coming up with the competition they supplied all their employees with protective equipment such as hand sanitizers, face masks as well as constantly reminding them of strict adherence to preventive measures. “The competition will somehow show how employees have grounded themselves so well with regards these preventive measures,” he maintained.
Climaxing the fun-packed event was the dishing out of prizes to members of staff whose video footages were considered to the best. The 1st prize was won by Amara I. Bundu of the Laboratory Department. He was awarded ten crates of Maltina,50 kilogram bag of parboil rice, two and half gallon oil, and one cartoon sardine.
The 2nd Prize was bagged by Tamba Sesay (T-Boy) of the Bar Department who got a 25 kilogram bag of parboil rice, two and half gallon oil, five crates of Maltina drinks and one cartoon sardine.
