Afara COVID-19 Response for Public Education and Health Workers’ Support

Afara International (Afara) is seeking a grant of $10,000 as general support for 2021 project activities related to its two-pronged response to COVID-19 in Nigeria, named Afara COVID-19 Response (ACR). One arm of the response is COVID-19 public education, and it is a risk communication and community engagement initiative designed to verify accurate information; explain confusing information; and debunk inaccurate information. The second arm promotes infection, prevention, and control (IPC) measures at primary health care centers (PHCs) that serve people living in poverty to reduce COVID-19 transmission and encourage the utilization of essential health services in those centers.

1. Afara COVID-19 Response will reduce the spread of COVID-19 among the urban and rural poor in Nigeria through access to accurate COVID-19 information and equipment that enables compliance.
2.Afara's support of primary health care workers in COVID-19 infection prevention and control will motivate the health workers to provide essential services to the urban and rural poor that use those PHCs and consequently improve the health outcomes for those disadvantaged populations.
3. Afara's project activities involve the training and empowerment of young unemployed or underemployed college graduates therefore, ACR will increase the number of unemployed graduates who are able to earn an income for supporting the health system.

We believe the spread of misinformation and the already fragile health systems appear to be the most important challenges to the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria. Like many other Sub-Saharan African countries. Nigeria has a weak health system, which disproportionately deprive the poor of essential health care. We have seen how COVID-19 further burdens even the most advanced health systems in the world and it is worrisome. Therefore, most public health agencies and people of goodwill that care about Africa are compelled to prioritize prevention of widespread transmission over any other intervention. Afara International has decided to join this fight to prevent widespread transmission in Nigeria by a combination of two projects. First, through Afara’s COVID-19 Response for Public Education (ACRPE), we review COVID-19 messages collected through our network of young college graduates (frontline volunteers) to determine whether they contain accurate, misleading, or inaccurate COVID-19 information. We use a set of three integrated apps to connect frontline volunteers to a team of medical and public health professionals who review unverified COVID-19 messages in circulation so that they can either verify them or provide counter messages that highlight accurate information and debunk falsehood. Verified messages or counter messages are returned to frontline volunteers who then disseminate accurate COVID-19 information within their social circles and online platforms. We have reviewed hundreds of messages and returned verified messages around dozens of topics.

Many African countries have so far been spared the expansive devastation of lives from COVID-19 that some developed countries have witnessed. The reason behind this unique scenario is not fully understood. Perhaps, it is providential. It is hard to tell whether the world's most fragile health systems are somehow being protected from the full wrath of COVID-19 or if its full manifestation is still to come. It would be good news if African countries are mostly enjoying protection through inherent protective socio-demographic factors or through swift national responses that were borne out of experience with other highly infectious diseases like Ebola. But, a second and worse wave is a possibility. Therefore, we are ramping up our production of quality fabric masks for vulnerable groups such as primary health workers and preparing to respond to another wave of misinformation that would be counterproductive to the COVID-19 prevention or treatment.In anticipation of a possible second wave in Nigeria, we are seeking to expand our frontline volunteers from a hundred to 500 in the first quarter of 2021. We anticipate an infodemic around various vaccine candidates and their efficacy and safety, and it is important to debunk them.

The second arm of our COVID-19 response promotes COVID-19 infection prevention and control. It involves increasing access to PPE and hand washing stations. This is motivated by the continued shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as face masks, in some health centers. Our frontline volunteers have designed over 1500 fabric masks using WHO's evidence-based recommendations, We be applying some of this grant funding to our design of customized fabric mask project with a high target of about 5000-10000 face mask over 6months.

Through our ACR project, we hope to reach about a thousand primary health workers in four Nigerian states with PPEs and handwashing stations; support at least 50 communities with sustained essential services; and empower at least 200 young unemployed college graduates to participate and earn an income from project activities.