Please note this is an update from the 30 March 2020 and the situation is changing regularly.
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As the African continent anticipates the spread of Covid-19, our partnering organisations are acting quickly to implement measures to protect the spread of coronavirus within their communities and the young trainees that you support to build sustainable livelihoods.
Following government advice all of our five current training projects in Zambia have either already suspended activity or are due to very shortly.
In Sierra Leone, our training projects with Future Focus Foundation, Mobility Sierra Leone and CVTC Craftshare finished in February.
Our project with Baptist Women’s Union in Freetown started in December to support young and vulnerable women and men. Julie the Programme Manager has been delivering training for peer educators at four local schools in Masorie at Glorious Adacemy Secondary. Students and teachers have all volunteered as focal people to share the important information of how to prevent the spread of the virus and to keep each other safe.
There are currently no known cases of Coronavirus in Malawi. Our live training projects are continuing cautiously and monitoring the situation.
For Uganda some projects are temporarily suspended, including TA Crusade which started a few weeks ago, as communities are encouraged to stay at home and maintain social distancing.
In northern Ghana, COVID19 doesn’t just pose a health risk, it means hunger for many people. If they cannot leave their houses, they cannot eat. It shows the vulnerability of the communities in which our partners work, and how they face so many more complexities in these uncertain times.
WUDEP were distributing hand sanitiser to trainees last week to help them wash them hands regularly
Starting Thursday 26 March, NORSAAC’s full staff team have been deployed to deliver outreach to a hundred communities. To ensure social distancing they have been using radio broadcasts to promote the ways that people can keep themselves protected in four different languages including Dagbani.
Although there are no reported cases of coronavirus in Northern Ghana (at the time this is written) WUDEP has been working tirelessly with volunteers to train participants and share good hygiene practices – including avoid shaking hands, washing hands, eating in groups and encouraging social distance.
On Thursday 26 March they had a meeting with the Ghana Health Service in the municipality to see if WUDEP can self fund tests for their participants next week to make sure they are supporting them responsibly. We will keep you updated on the outcome of this.
All partner countries are seeing a hike in the price of food and soap. For example in Ghana sanitise used to cost Ghs3 (approximately 50p) and now costs Ghs10.
This is a rapidly changing landscape, and we will need to work with partners to ensure projects are targeted timely and adaptive.
In the short term we can support the partners we work with in Africa to deliver the response mechanisms to keep people safe, and fed – today.
In the longer term we need to support them to diversify their incomes when they come through this. It has never been more critical than now to support young people and women to rebuild a sustainable livelihood.
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