Covid-19 is rapidly spreading across West and Southern Africa. In Mali alone, over 2,000 cases have been confirmed, while there are more than 1,000 in Niger.
This is despite government restrictions imposed to tackle the spread of the virus, such as restrictions on working hours, limits to public gatherings, closing schools and scaling-down non-essential businesses.
There are fears that many more may lose their loved ones to coronavirus.
Islamic Relief is doing all that we can both to help combat the spread of the virus and to support those whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic.
Measures we’re taking in Mali
In Mali, we’re running training sessions to raise awareness on how to stay safe amid the pandemic.
We’re focusing on training community and faith leaders about best practices to help prevent the spread of the virus. Holding four training sessions per week, we’re working within camps for internally displaced people as well as in mosques and other places of worship.
We’ve also distributed water, sanitation and hygiene kits to 42 health centres in the district of Bamako, reaching 1,300 people.
Measures we’re taking in Niger
In Niger, we’ve distributed 7.9 tons of food aid to 255 vulnerable households who have been affected by Covid-19 restrictions.
We’ve also distributed hygiene kits composed of soap and water containers to almost 2,000 at risk families.
Our awareness raising activities in the country include hygiene awareness sessions on radio and TV stations in Dunia, Baarou and Ouallam, as well as face-to-face sessions with 6,000 vulnerable people, particularly older people and those with chronic illnesses.
Measures we’re taking in Malawi
Further south in Africa, we’re on the ground in Malawi where the tally of confirmed cases is over 3, 000. Islamic Relief has run community engagement sessions around prevention techniques, reaching almost 83,000 people so far.
We’ve also trained 240 frontline health workers, such as staff from Ngabu Rural Hospital, in case management techniques for Covid-19.
As another preventative measure we’ve distributed 1,000 personal protective equipment kits to district health and social services offices.
We need your support
The world’s poorest communities are in grave danger of being overwhelmed in this pandemic. We urgently need your support to continue providing the assistance they so badly need: please donate now.