Combating COVID-19 in Ghana using socio-pedagogical methods: educational campaign through children’s arts

Abstract

Background: This brief report presents an action research project that was conducted in 2020 to contribute to approaches to ensure adherence to COVID-19 health protocols by children in Ghana. The research was on the basis that when adults allow children to share the burden of finding effective measures to the adherence of COVID-19 health protocols, the spread of the virus will be contained, which would also ensure the safety of children. Method: The action research was designed to be socially engaging, therefore a qualitative approach using Arts-Based-Research was adopted. Arts, as a socio-pedagogical method, was used as a tool to engage 189 children, between the ages of 4 and 15 years, in art workshops in Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city. The children, from different socioeconomic backgrounds, were aided by Art Assistants to handle the different art materials. Results: The different artistic depiction of children on COVID-19 suggests that the awareness created had reached many children irrespective of their socioeconomic background. However, how it was portrayed by the child participants introduced a fun aspect enabling the art materials to be used for advocacy. Conclusion: The medium, children’s art, used was innovative and caught the attention of children and adults alike, hence the art materials were effective advocacy materials. Also, the flexibility of the project design enabled the researchers to adapt the outputs to suit the rapidly evolving COVID-19 issues in the country to make the project more effective.