The protection and promotion of civic space in South Sudan as told by Mr Kenyi Beneth of LWF, in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic and the political instabilities that the nation is grappling with.

The role of CSO's in South Sudan in this context.

COVID Watch Africa together with CIVICUS, continue to empower citizens in reclaiming Civic Space in Africa.

Here is a one-on-one interview with one of Tanzania’s renown journalists, Mr Odero Charles Oderos, who tells us more about the laws passed in the republic of Tanzania and what human rights defenders and the entire community of CSO’S is doing to protect the civic freedoms in the region.

(This interview was conducted on 3rd November 2020, which was 9 days into the nationwide internet shutdown amidst the presidential elections in the country).

In Central African Republic in the Central region, a civil society organisation in Bangui the Capital laboured to create “cloth masks” and offered them to the public at a subsidized rate as compared to the basic market price. This was received as a great relief to the end users given the grappling economy faced within the country, that is currently met with political instabilities amid the recent presidential elections and other factors held constant.

In the Republic of Malawi from the Southern region of Africa, an individual, (a village chief) created a foot pedal geared water pump as a replica, for villagers to make in their homes and help with washing hands with less contact with the soap and the water containers. This was seen to be embraced in the neighborhood and the idea was picked up by several families.

Rwanda in the eastern part of Africa has a young brilliant young boy that has managed to create an FM radio station from scratch and continues to use his channel to sensitize his village-mates about the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the do’s and don’ts as interpreted from the World Health Organisation. This innovation was met with positivity from the Rwandan government and the civil society, and discussions are under way to support his engineering work.

The Republic of Togo from the western region of Africa has a civil society organisation that created a phone application targeting reports from citizens on the violations of human rights and any infringements on civic freedoms. This application is available on play store and it is in both “Ewe”, the commonly used language in Togo and French, which is the official language of the country.

A different way of advocacy around the pandemic.

The “Ndlovu” choir group took it up to create informative songs in Zulu (a language that is widely spoken in the country) with subtitles in English, in a bid to address all South Africans on the basic standard operating procedures needs to stop the spread of the virus and keep safe. A number of songs were released in early April 2020, when the numbers of the infected persons were on the rise in Africa, and the youth group of 13- to 24-year-olds continues to create more songs and to create awareness through music, dance and drama. The choir group has over the time-proven to be Africa’s sensational with reviews across the globe appreciating the efforts put into the work to create awareness in a more fun but very informative way.

From Cameroon - the Central African region, here is a story showing a civil society organisation in Bangui the Capital that laboured to sensitise local communities about the pandemic, focused on including in-mates or prisoners in captivity during the pandemic.

As civil Society Organisations across the African continent continue to lean in and help in curbing the spread of COVID 19, the Local Youth Corner in Cameroon that is composed of 15-35yr old young peacebuilders has a campaign launched back in march 2020 dubbed Operation One Person one Hand Sanitizer, that is reaching out to prisons and communities in the same setting.

The campaign is focused on mobilising young people from different occupations to build community resilience and admits the pandemic through; local production of PPEs and free donation to vulnerable communities.

The initiative is also seen to be fostering online and offline (door-to-door) sensitization to counter misinformation and fake news. It provides free psychosocial and counseling support to victims of the pandemic through The We-Connect phone calls and text messages Center and collection of data on people’s perceptions about the pandemic to support research publications.

Rwanda in the eastern part of Africa has a civil society organisation that is continuing to help visual and hearing-impaired people have access to COVID-19 information.

The Rwanda National Union of the deaf that is located in the capital Kigali has been seen traveling across the nation sensitising and easing communication for the special needs persons by translating and playing out the information inform of skits, plays, and written flip charts with the requirements needed to keep safe and stop the spread of the virus in Rwanda.

From the Republic of Malawi in the Southern region of Africa, Mlambe Health and Social Trust (MhEST), a locally registered charity organization based in Zomba, started an initiative to distribute reusable face masks to people in the communities.

Apart from distributing free face masks and teaching communities how to produce them, the organisation also introduced a homemade hand sanitizer for its staff to use during community engagement activities.

Working across Traditional Authorities Mlumbe, Mwambo, Chikowi, Sub—Traditional Authority Nkapita, and Sub—Traditional Authority Ntholowa, the organisation has managed to distribute more than 10 000 face masks while reaching over 15 000 people.

They are working with 137 Community-Based Organisations (CBO) and these CBOs are structures that have been put and have been pressed to save the communities by responding to their health, social and environmental needs.

They have gone ahead to identify the requirements needed within those CBOs, so to procure materials like fabric, elastic, and thread to give them, where each organisation produces upto 1000 masks and distributes to the vulnerable people that the CBOs are working with.

They are working with orphans and the needy people in the communities plus those with disabilities.