The Society of Igbo Professionals (SIP), is holding a 24-hour Tweetathon from 12am to 12 midnight today, Saturday, May 9, 2020 to showcase its Intervention Programme towards the prevention and mitigation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the estimated 25-35 million residents in the communities of the Igbo homesteads in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Imo and Rivers states.

The Society of Igbo Professionals – https://societyofigboprofessionals.org/ – is a registered professional organisation whose mission is to connect the global community of Igbo professionals and, leveraging the power of community, to drive sustainable socio-economic growth of Igbo individuals, organisations and communities both at home and abroad.

The idea of the Tweetathon is to connect with Ndigbo where they live, work and play across the globe, as well as with their friends and host communities, to tweet about the impact of the pandemic and discuss all aspects of SIP COVID-19 Intervention Programme.

According to Nkem Ogbuaku, Lead, SIP COVID-19 Intervention Information and Communications Workgroup, “In the course of the 24 hours we will breakdown our intervention framework, explain the Igbo values that drive our actions, share all our COVID-19 prevention advertising materials as well as communication to counter misinformation about COVID-19, provide our accountability statement and highlight our fundraising actions”.

Other goals of the SIP Tweetathon include boosting hashtags that drive both the Intervention Programme as well as our SIP COVID-19 campaign theme, “Ndu ka”, a call to remember that life is more important than any other pursuit. The core Igbo values of #OnyeAghanaNwanneYa (‘let no-one leave a family member behind’) and #Igwebuike (‘We are stronger, unite and working together’) further underpin the messaging.

“We expect participants to push for strong compliance with the “5” COVID-19 prevention guidelines: avoiding crowds, staying home, cleaning surfaces, covering coughs & sneezes and washing hands often”, said Professor Chika Unigwe, a coordinator of the Information and Communication Workgroup of SIP.

The organization looks forward to the participation of the global community of Ndigbo and their friends in the Twitter-fest. All thought leaders, advocacy groups, students, celebrities, organizations, media influencers and partners, are invited to participate, and amplify the campaign across all social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

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