REPORT OF PROGRAMME: COVID-19 AND DEMENTIA WEBINAR

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

The webinar took the format of a 'Question and Answer' session, conducted on the Zoom platform and facilitated by GWAF Trustee Ms. Olatoun Gabi-Williams. The webinar was beamed live on the GWAF Facebook Channel. Ms. Olatoun Gabi-Williams fielded important and urgent questions from a highly engaged audience to a panel of esteemed experts.

Five panellists were drawn from across the medical, legal, government and academic fields. Most important was the presence of a representative from the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Saidu Ahmed Dumbulwa.

The programme opened with an expression of gratitude to the late Dr Gabi-Williams for his prodigious contribution to public health in Nigeria, and an appreciation of the significant efforts of the Gabi Williams Alzheimer's Foundation to improve dementia awareness, education and training. This was given by the esteemed Dr. Salma Anas-Kolo, the Director of Family Health at the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH), Abuja, delivered by proxy by Dr. Saidu Dambulwa. The webinar proper started with a welcome address by GWAF trustee Mrs. Lola Bailey.

A Question and Answer session followed the welcome address, moderated by GWAF trustee Ms. Toun Gabi-Williams. Ms. Gabi-Williams fielded questions from the audience to the webinar's five expert panellists: Prof Adesola Ogunniyi of the University of Ibadan; Dr. Toyin Salawu, a retiree of FMOH and Medical Consultant; Mrs. Cheluchi Onyemelukwe (Ph.D), a legal practitioner with a specialty in healthcare policy and systems; Dr. Saidu Ahmed Dambulwa, the National Project Coordinator of HEPI-Q project of the FMOH, and GWAF trustee Prof. Dr. Jide Gabi-Williams, who 'zoomed in' from New York. The closing segment, the vote of thanks, was eloquently given by our Chief Executive Officer, Dr. (Mrs.) Abisola Gabi-Williams.

Over 150 GWAF Facebook community members took part in the live session, which lasted well over an hour. The post-event views have, at the time of writing, reached about 300 views on the GWAF community Facebook channel. GWAF plans to upload the webinar as soon as possible to enable those who could not attend the live webinar to listen to it at their convenience.

CHALLENGES

Some of our invited guests to the webinar were unable to attend.
The Facebook account created for GWAF is a closed group. Some of those who were invited to participate in the live event were not members of the community and network challenges made it difficult to approve their membership in time for the event.

LEARNING POINTS

We will endeavour to ensure that invitations are sent out earlier than was the case for this event, and we will follow up invitations with reminder notifications to facilitate maximum participation.

For ease of accessibility, we are considering migrating to a Facebook page in place of the 'group' feature that we currently use.

CLOSING REMARK

The general overview and feedback from the Community has been highly encouraging. We are very grateful to all who attended for their time and commitment before, during and after the event.

Peter Olaniyan

Senior Officer