In title photo and above, members of Jebel Aulia community attending one of our Covid-19 awareness and prevention sessions, which we run at the invitation of the Sudanese Ministry of Health.
Our participants become Covid-19 prevention ambassadors in their communities, spreading the word to their families, friends and neighbors, and saving lives. Above, our volunteers handing out vital prevention guidance.
With little or no electricity or running water, high levels of poverty-related disease and illiteracy, Jebel Aulia is desperately vulnerable to Covid-19. The homes of our literacy participants are sadly a world away from that shown in the “Stay at Home” poster above. Below, children looking in on our literacy graduation celebrations.
Learn more about Jebel Aulia in Celebrating and Literacy Circles in Action
Among the posters used is the one below, explaining the symptoms of Covid-19 and its prevention.
Most of those living in Jebel Aulia have no access to medical care. Learn more about the health context in Sudan in Coronavirus in Sudan – Stepping Back from the Abyss. Our literacy program focuses on health and disease prevention.
See more in Literacy Changes Lives
Above, Jebel Aulia. Learn about out literacy circle there in Celebrating and Literacy Circles in Action
This is a literacy post for Women’s Education Partnership. See At a Glance for more on our mission and impact. For the economic impact of Covid-19 on Sudan, see Coronavirus in Sudan Stepping Back from the Abyss Part 2
We have already funded our Covid-19 awareness and relief work but please consider giving to our life-changing literacy work. It is never more needed than now. Just click on the link below to donate quickly and securely:
Below, sketch of some of our participants with new masks.
Covid-19 Awareness and Prevention – A Preview
Our Covid-19 outreach brings medical and health guidance to some of the poorest districts of Khartoum. Lockdown for the women and children living in these settlements brings its own profound challenges and for those already desperately poor, it can mean even more daily hardship and uncertainty. Learn more about the impact of lockdown in Coronavirus Sudan Stepping Back from the Abyss 3 – Lockdown
More on our Covid-19 awareness work next month.
Scientists have found that even homemade cloth masks can reduce droplet spread from the wearer by 90% if worn and washed correctly. Below, attendees learning the correct way to make and use face masks to reduce transmission from asymptomatic or symptomatic wearers.
Ministry of Health guidance on the correct way to use facemasks.
This also helps to protect against infection in situations where social distancing is impossible. Mass testing for the virus is costly and logistically problematic in Sudan, as it is for so many other developing countries. Low cost preventative options are key.
Our Covid-19 awareness campaign is vital, life-saving work, undertaken by our courageous staff in Khartoum in stressful circumstances. Our literacy coordinator, Mrs. Adila Osman, explains just how important these awareness sessions are after visiting one of our outreach centers:
“It is terrible. I really feel pity”
“The ladies said they have no information. They never see TV and there is no electricity. They even stopped listening to the radio because the battery price is too high. So they lack all information so they cannot protect themselves. They don’t imagine the risk or the danger they face.”
“They are not ready for lockdown because they don’t understand what’s going on. They depend on day-to-day work. If they fall sick they will not know what to do. As they say, we have nothing but Allah.”
A key part of our campaign is the importance of hand washing. Below Sudanese Ministry of Health poster explaining how to wash our hands thoroughly. In places like Jebel Aulia, there is no running water at home so public washing points are being installed and guidance on social distancing provided.
Watch the wonderful video below to see how this works in practice – a testimony of simplicity and ingenuity.
More details and photos in On the Front Line Coronavirus Prevention
This is a literacy post for Women’s Education Partnership. See At a Glance for more on our mission and impact. Learn more on the impact of Covid-19 on women and girls in Sudan in Coronavirus Sudan Stepping Back from the Abyss 4
We have already funded our Covid-19 awareness and relief work but please consider giving to our life-changing literacy and orphans support work. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by interruption and loss of their education.
“Based on lessons learned with the school closures in response to the Ebola epidemics of recent years, UNICEF maintains that the longer children stay away from school, the less likely they are to ever return.”
Just click on the link below to donate quickly and securely:
Women's literacy in Sudan 
Very interesting read, shows how important something as simple as a radio is in such difficult times.
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Absolutely, Islam and thank you so much for your comment.
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