“I commend the United Nations Mission in South Sudan for fighting the spread of the Coronavirus in Eastern Equatoria state. We realize that crucial information has not been widely understood because of communication barriers, so translating key messages into local languages is a great contribution,” says Martha Ojabba, representative of the state’s Secretary-General, as she praised the launch of a COVID-19 caravan to help inform rural communities.

Working in collaboration with the Eastern Equatoria taskforce for keeping the pandemic at bay, the peacekeeping mission’s field office in Torit translated the World Health Organization’s approved prevention messages into Pari, Madi, Tenet, Lopit and Didinga, the most widely spoken languages in the region. Information in Arabic and English is of course also available, be it in radio jingles, on posters or in flyers.

“Approved messages in different languages and formats will be distributed to the population as the truck, itself covered in pointers, moves around Eastern Equatoria,” explains Caroline Waudo, head of the peacekeeping mission’s field office in Torit, adding that this effort to prevent COVID-19 is being made in tandem with the regular everyday work of the Mission, including its support to the South Sudanese peace process.

For a period of two weeks, local radio stations based in the key towns of Torit, Kapoeta and Nimule will be airing jingles and other Corona-related information in a variety of languages.

“We received complaints from people who don’t understand English and Arabic, which made the translations done by the UN absolutely vital,” says Dr. Elijio Omoro, director general of the state ministry of health and chairperson of the local COVID-19 taskforce.

The addition of information in local languages has been well received by locals in Eastern Equatoria.

“My wife and I have listened to the Coronavirus preventive messages in Pari and Lopit, the languages we speak. Understanding the messages is crucial to change the social behaviour of individuals who till this point had not been aware of what is expected of them,” says Lokulang Faustino, a resident of the Malakia residential area.

To maximize the impact of the information campaign, partners in the fight against the spread of the virus are being urged to use the messages made available for further dissemination. This task is made more difficult by a prevailing sense of insecurity along some roads in the region, with access to some routes sometimes being denied.