How JRS Malawi is responding to Coronavirus at Dzaleka Refugee Camp

We’d like to share with you some uplifting updates from one of our partners – Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Malawi. We have been working with JRS Malawi to launch a digital training program for refugees at the Dzaleka Camp in the Dowa district to teach digital skills to the refugees to enhance their opportunities to earn an income. Dzaleka Refugee Camp is home to over 41,000 refugees and asylum seekers, who are unable to leave its confines to pursue education or employment opportunities.

Malawi, situated in Southern Africa, is starting to see confirmed cases of Coronavirus, and our partners there are working on continuation and contingency plans for their existing programs.

Firstly, JRS Malawi has quickly promoted a massive awareness campaign about the virus, and together with other partners, have mounted water points and placed hand soaps in strategic areas of the Dzaleka Refugee Camp. JRS is also constructing emergency shelters for refugees who may become positive.

JRS is creatively using the community radio station of the Camp to continue school lessons for the primary school students, as well as, continuing with the daily feeding programs for close to 5,000 children in the Camp.

The digital training program continues with students working from home with dongles (for internet access), computers and other equipment on loan to them so that they can participate in online classes conducted from Paris. They have also created WhatsApp classes with one teacher per five students.

So far, these measures appear to be working in maintaining the continuity of the programs whilst keeping our partners and participants safe and well.