Africa educates her campaign with Sofonie Dala. Do not miss this episode. Day 16

 Africa educates her campaign is live in Angola

Countries worldwide have closed schools at an unprecedented rate in an attempt to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is therefore easy to assume that learners will be safer or better off staying at home than mixing with others in the classroom. The reality, however, is that for millions of girls and young women, particularly those in the world’s least developed countries, school shutdowns bring other risks.

Today we have a special guest, her name is Celma she is a 3rd year University student. She will share with us her challenges during lock-downs. 

Celma is a 22-year-old girl, she is studying the management and business administration. Covid-19 has been a great challenge for her as a student, this prevents her from going to university, attending libraries, having student meetings, doing internships at companies, etc.

In the first phase of the school closures they had classes online. But over time the situation has worsened, the economic crisis has worsened. For this and other reasons online classes have ceased to exist.

In order to continue learning, she participates in webinars with colleagues, watches educational videos on Youtube and reads many books.

The government should create good strategies such as disinfecting schools, controlling temperature, aerating classrooms, distributing bio-security equipment and controlling social distance between students and colleagues, she recommends.

With these issues in mind, and the knowledge that girls are less likely to return to school after a prolonged absence, education authorities must take steps to avoid a disastrous reversal of the recent progress made in girls’ and women’s learning.

We urge communities to act quickly, suggesting a number of measures including:

• ensuring equitable representation of women and men in crisis-related decision-making and tapping into women’s’ expertise; 
• producing gender-sensitive data relating to the crisis; 
• using women’s networks at the community level to organize responses to the crisis; 
• encouraging girls to continue learning during and after the crisis and to support their peers; 
• encouraging men and women to share childcare and domestic work in the household and community; 
• denouncing domestic violence as well as putting in place safe environments for female victims of abuse. 

Education planners should be aware of the particular threat that the coronavirus school closures pose to girls and women, and ensure that plans for learning continuity take this into account.