Women, men empowered in the fight against COVID-19
THE COVID-19 pandemic is showing induced poverty surge, which has also widened the gender poverty gap.
Women have reported limited to no personal income and eroded personal savings which is affecting their economic status and financial independence.
With this in mind, Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (Walpe), in partnership with three women-led Christian-based organisations, i.e. Sprout Women Empowerment Trust, Girls Table and Bethany project with support from Oxfam Zimbabwe, last month conducted a virtual training on empowering women to fight COVID-19 and also launched the people’s vaccine campaign.
This came against the backdrop of women failing to access personal protective equipment (PPE) and having little information to make informed decisions on the vaccination process.
Forty women leaders and 10 men from the country’s 10 provinces were trained how to make PPE such as hand sanitisers and washable facial masks.
This came as a big boost to the women who are the majority of frontline responders at family, community and national level.
The trained women were informed to engage health experts when they want to make the hand sanitisers for commercial purposes.
The People’s Vaccine Campaign aims to engage government on the importance of rolling out an inclusive, transparent and efficient vaccination drive.
Lack of proper awareness on the vaccine has led to low uptake of the precious jab.
Government is accused of not doing much to demystify the myths and lies that have circulated within communities.
Walpe continues to appeal to government to further decentralise the vaccination process, increase transparency in the procurement process and provide citizens with many options of the vaccines beyond the Chinese ones. As part of empowering women to fight the pandemic, the participants were taken through a mental health session.
With COVID-19 wrecking-havoc one year on, many people’s mental health being had been affected. The participants were urged to guard their mental sanity and also exercise regularly.