In our last blog post, we filled you in on the village sensitizations we held in a few villages to raise awareness among our volunteers regarding COVID-19. It was really important to us to conduct these sensitizations as safely as possible and also as quickly as possible so that the volunteers could return to their respective villages and sensitize their communities as well. A lot of people in rural areas were walking around with the dangerous misconception that the pandemic would not affect them as it was just a ‘town disease’ or ‘for white people’, therefore we had to act quickly to equip them with accurate facts in order to keep them safe. Knowledge is power after all.

After this phase of sensitizations, we realized that there was a need to further aid the fight against COVID-19 in Livingstone. We came up with the idea of distributing reusable masks to parents and guardians of some of the children under the sponsorship program as they put themselves at risk every day to venture out and try to make a living for their dependents. We commissioned some alumni of the sponsorship program who had been under the skills training program studying tailoring, to make these masks that we then handed out on Friday, May 24^th. 300 Masks were distributed safely at Ngwenya, Nakatindi, Mwandi and Libuyu Primary Schools. Before guardians were given masks, they were sensitized on COVID-19 and also on how to effectively sanitize their masks.

The distribution was successful though we could not reach out to everyone, those who received were very thankful for masks and those who missed out are eager for the next round of distributions. In our own small way, we are attempting to find ways to help out and aid in the fight against this terrible pandemic. If you’re interested in finding out how you too can help us help the fight against COVID-19, don’t hesitate to reach out to us on any of our social media platforms or email mail@responsenetwork.org. #stayhome #staysafe #maskup