April 30, 2020

Alumni Come Together to Inform Swazis about COVID-19 Prevention

Eswatini’s alumni association, led by Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) alumna Colisile Tfwala, recently carried out a COVID-19 prevention and awareness campaign that will reach rural Swazis, who make up the majority of the population. The alumni developed and printed 3800 placards with four distinct messages in Siswati, encouraging hygiene and health.  In partnership with the Times of Eswatini to deliver along newspaper routes, they posted everywhere their fellow citizens might look -- light poles, food shops, community centers -- and have reached around 80% of the entire country! The alumni worked together to fill in distribution gaps themselves by loaning cars to each other and partnering with municipalities.

These hardworking alumni are just getting started! The next stage of the project aims to record these messages and send them out via audio public service announcements for radio broadcast.  The U.S. Embassy in Mbabane is proud to be a partner of this effective campaign to ensure proper health precautions are taken throughout the country.