At the same time, COVID-19 crisis has sparked an outpouring of solidarity from people around the world, including migrants and refugees themselves, keen to help in the countries where they now live. By doing so, they are proving that they are assets to host countries.
Fatima, 43, is one such example. She fled to Niger when armed groups came to destroy her village in neighbouring Mali. Today, she is one of the many artisans and dressmakers trained by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who now stitch up to 40 washable and stylish mouth masks per day, protecting wearers and those around them.
Mariama, who participated in the regional Migrants as Messengers workshop in Dakar in February. Photo: IOM Guinea 2020
Mohamed, 39, worked as a doctor in Libya and was training to become a surgeon until violence forced him to flee to France in 2016. He passed the French language exams required to start the process of registering as a doctor and completed internships where he shadowed senior doctors at hospitals. “My dream is to work as a doctor,” Mohamed says. When the COVID-19 crisis began in France, he immediately registered on the emergency roster set up by the Ministry of Health to support medical staff in hospitals.
In Guinea, returned migrants are helping their communities prevent the spread of COVID-19 - and misinformation around the pandemic – through the IOM “Migrants as Messengers” community engagement project. “A lot of people think that if they are sick, they will face stigmatization,” said Elhadj, a volunteer. “We are going to help people understand that if someone is sick, they have to go to the hospital.”
Eleven volunteers across Guinea will be equipped with hygiene kits and focus their outreach on raising awareness around COVID-19 with female community members in local languages.
“We know that it is through women that good practices can be conveyed in the home, particularly handwashing,” said Mariama, a project volunteer. “This is why we want to target them in our awareness-raising.”
News Resource: UN news
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