Responding to COVID-19 in the Congo

This is the first in a series of blogposts, outlining how we are responding to COVID-19.

Natural disasters, war, disease – these have a way of amplifying the gap between rich and poor. According to WHO, ‘pandemics impact poor and socially marginalized communities the hardest’. The Economist summarised: ‘Social distancing is practically impossible if you live in a crowded slum. Hand-washing is hard if you have no running water. Governments may tell people not to go out to work, but if that means their families will not eat, they will go out anyway. If prevented they may riot’. Misinformation is rife; health systems cannot provide treatment; in education, too, the pandemic will amplify the gap between rich and poor. While the rich will access their education through Google classrooms, for the poorest, even reaching a radio will require them to gather.

The president closed schools in the DRC in mid-March, borders were closed by the weekend, and in Goma we saw immediate hikes in food prices. All gatherings of more than 20 are banned across the country, while Kinshasa, where most cases are, has entered lockdown. Rwanda, right on Goma’s doorstep, also entered lockdown very quickly.

So in our corner of the world, where normal service for Justice Rising looks like operating a network of 14 schools serving conflict-affected communities, we have been facing some critical questions: How do we operate a school network when all schools are shut? How do
we protect our school communities from COVID-19? How do we continue to deliver on our mission to transform war zones through education?

We will be outlining our response to COVID-19, answering these questions and inviting you to partner with us, in a series of blogposts.