With over 90,000 confirmed cases and over 2,800 deaths in Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic drastically changed the Youth In Action grassroots initiatives that are geared towards promoting peace and sustainable development in communities. The youth however have been taking gallant steps and are involved in initiatives to help cushion their communities from the health and economic effects of the pandemic.
Country Synopsis In Tanzania, youth leaders have invested more time on awareness creation during this time of COVID-19. They have been encouraging their communities to practice social distancing, hand washing and self-isolation. They are also working with the local government and community based organizations on offering psychosocial support to the affected. Youth leaders have also been actively engaged in social media campaigns and awareness on the pandemic. Read more about their interventions here.
In Somalia, youth leaders, who are part of the Women Alliance for Peace and Humanity in the country, and pioneers of Siraad Initiative, are raising awareness on COVID-19 among women, especially those living in camps and settlement areas. They have also donated hygiene materials for the women to help them during the pandemic. The youth have also sensitized the women on how to use online spaces like WhatsApp in sharing information about COVID-19. They are also producing short awareness videos on the pandemic to be shared with the women and on online spaces.
In Kenya, a group of 30 youths, drawn from the Youth Peace Club of Mukuru, Nairobi, in partnership with Oxfam have been enrolling families through the telecommunications service provider, Safaricom, to have access to a bar soap for safe hand washing and hygiene. This initiative was introduced after the youth realized that the COVID-19 economic crisis was worsening especially after the government restrictions. Youth leaders took up the initiative in order to attend to the hygiene needs of the residents of Mukuru slums; thus reducing the spread of the disease. So far, over 500 families have benefited from this programme.
Since the inception of Youth In Action, the youth have been running the campaign, aimed at building peace by spreading the messages of peace within the online spaces as well as promoting the Youth In Action brand online. With the outbreak of COVID-19, much attention within the online spaces has shifted to addressing the pandemic thus less attention given to other issues including peacebuilding. To this end, the campaign has suffered in terms of its visibility online and targeting online messages on peacebuilding without having to relate it to COVID-19.
In light of this, the youth have been aligning their online messaging to COVID-19 to peace. Fredrick Shija from Tanzania has been writing articles and designing social media posters that share information on how the pandemic has affected progress on SDGs especially SDG 16 on peace, justice and strong institutions. The rest of the youth leaders have been finding ways to make online messaging relevant to both peacebuilding and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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