greater than eight months into the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, prevention consciousness stays extra essential than ever. With assist from the UN Refugee agency and the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, lab technologist Lynda Nalumansi helps refugees in Uganda study extra regarding the virus through a weekly radio current.
By day, Lynda Nalumansi is on the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight as a lab technologist inside the Kyaka II refugee settlement in Uganda.
By night, she is as quickly as as quickly as extra on the frontlines, this time internet hosting a radio communicate current to answer refugees’ questions regarding the virus and to protect highlighting the significance of sustaining bodily distancing, carrying masks, and consideration-grabbing in completely different doubtlessly lifesaving measures.
“in case you are on the market, round completely different people, accessible inside the market, or on the hospital, or at work, on an everyday basis bear in thoughts to protect social distance,” she advises on her current.
Since might, Nalumansi has hosted two displays per week on the native Kyegegwa neighborhood radio station. She and her staff have deployed greater than seven languages and dialects — English, Rutooro, Runyankore, Luganda, Swahili, Kinyabwisha, and French — to obtain refugee audiences inside the neighborhood who hail from Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and elsewhere.
There are greater than 123,000 refugees at Kyaka II, most of whom have been compelled to flee extreme violence in DRC. whereas there have been no cases of COVID-19 at Kyaka II, dozens of refugees dwelling in completely different settlements and cities in Uganda have examined constructive for it. This information has made others fearful and ask questions regarding the virus.
In July alone, 70 listeners acknowledged as in to Nalumansi’s radio current, and he or she and native well being officers answered an whole of 102 questions. The questions included considerations about whether or not it is safe to share masks with a associate; if a thermometer might even be utilized to test for the virus; whether or not COVID-19 is sexually transmitted; and logistical questions on the place masks might even be purchased inside the realm.
“COVID-19 is exact,” Nalumansi tells her listeners. “you want to protect at dwelling if attainable, however in case you truly should maneuver round, don’t neglect to cowl your mouth and your nostril with a face masks.”
Nalumansi has labored in Kyaka II since 2015, seeing her truthful proportion of cholera outbreaks (29 cases on the settlement in 2018 and 31 in 2019), stopping the Ebola outbreak in jap DRC from entering into Uganda, and now, defending refugees — and herself — from the mannequin new COVID-19 virus.
“there is a fear of publicity amongst well being workers, however i’ve expert so many completely different types of outbreaks that i do know I simply should hold calm,” she acknowledged. “We, as well being workers, know that if we’re not carrying our private defending devices [PPE] that we will get contaminated, and given our occupation we simply should take precaution and take fantastic care.”
entry to PPE and lab gives is a problem everywhere in Uganda. well being workers at the second have PPE, however gadgets get depleted typically,” acknowledged innocent Komakech, emergency preparedness focal particular person at WHO Uganda. “fortuitously, COVID-19 has not but touched Kyaka II refugee settlement.”
all through Uganda, constructive cases have risen to greater than 2,000 as of August 24; the predominant case was confirmed on March 21, and whereas the predominant dying was not recorded till the prime of July, greater than a dozen deaths have now been registered. The nation has been planning for the worst-case state of affairs, which might be an outbreak in its metropolis slums or all through the refugee settlements.
With assist from the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, UNHCR has been in a place to make sure that devoted workers comparable to Lynda Nalumansi can proceed to cease the an infection and unfold of the virus amongst refugees in Kyaka II whereas defending themselves.
“as quickly as I joined this occupation i assumed, ‘that is the place i truly belong and might contribute,’ and through your full challenges I’ve confronted over the earlier couple of years, I nonetheless really feel the identical; method extra so,” she acknowledged.
This piece has been tailored from content material supplied by UNHCR and has been edited and revealed with permission.
In June, on the route of WHO, UNHCR acquired $10 million from the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund — created by the United Nations basis, in partnership with the Swiss Philanthropy basis — to assist its lifesaving work to fight the pandemic in simply a few of the world’s most susceptible areas.
you almost certainly can assist
every movement counts inside the fight in opposition to COVID-19. By supporting the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, you almost certainly can assist ongoing efforts to fight the coronavirus and defend the lives of refugees all through the world. The Fund is the quickest and best method for people, corporations, and organizations to assist the work of the World well being group and its companions in battling the virus.
Donate to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
This piece was supplied by UNHCR’s Stephanie Perham and has been edited and revealed with permission.