Training young social workers and activists on COVID-19 prevention, thus turning them into trainers of others, is one way in which the United Nations Mission in South Sudan and its field office in Bor continues to support the nation’s fight against the pandemic.

“We want the people themselves to be agents of change in terms of raising awareness on the Coronavirus,” says Isidore Boutchue, a civil affairs officer serving with the peacekeeping mission.

The 20 trainees, now trainers, were drawn from the Women Empowerment Center and People’s Care Agency. They will provide COVID-19 education to residents of ten blocks of Bor town and in nearby villages. In fact, they have already started.

“We began the day before yesterday in the area around the fisheries along the riverbank,” says Adau Recho, coordinator at the Women Empowerment Center. 

South Sudan’s already weak health care system has been further weakened by protracted civil war in the country. So far, South Sudan has registered 1,930 confirmed infections and 36 deaths.

The educational outreach programme of the new trainers is financed and technically supported by the UN peacekeeping mission, which has also assisted local communities by means of strategic donations (including an ambulance to the Bor hospital), radio talk shows and information material on the dreaded virus and how to prevent its further spread.

In Jonglei State, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan partners with the state taskforce, the World Health Organization and community-based groups to fight the Coronavirus.