Help Send Zimbabwe Health Workers Back to Work!

 
by Pauline Muchina

 
Last week, Zimbabwe’s health workers went on strike because of their lack of PPEs (personal protective equipment). We need to buy and ship these products to Zimbabwe ASAP so that the health workers can go back to saving lives and respond to COVID-19.

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the organization with whom I work, has partnered with the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights and Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches, USA, in fundraising for these necessities. These organizations will work together to ensure transparency in the distribution and usage of PPEs procured. AFSC will facilitate the procurements of the PPEs from Asia, and secure humanitarian airlifting of the products from Asia to Zimbabwe.

Below are the links where people can donate. Please share widely with your networks and let us send Zimbabwe’s health workers back to work so that they are prepared to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

• Website: https://www.afsc.org/story/zimbabwe-nurses-and-doctors-need-protective-gear-now
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/afsc_org/status/1245807779627126792
• Facebook: https://business.facebook.com/AmericanFriendsServiceCommittee/posts/10157180940982444

 
The WHO Warning

The World Health Organization is warning African countries to prepare for the worst. At the moment, African countries report low rates of infections. However, this can change anytime, as it did in New York. African extended families and congestions in our cities, with inadequate health resources, lack of water, congested public transportation with no personal space at all, an open invitation to visitors and families (neighbors and friends stopping by or stopping to say hello and inquire about each other’s well-being and families)–these can be our undoing if we don’t act fast.

 
Credit: AFSC

 
Together We Will Survive

I agree with those who say the coronavirus pandemic is a wake-up call to the entire world. As we learn what it means to be a global village, we are also learning about our inter-dependency. No nation can survive alone, and if we don’t work together to stop the spread of COVID-19, no one will be safe. Some people may delay getting sick and feel false security, given their wealth and resources, but it is an airborne virus for eight hours and is probably everywhere, so no one is safe until we all are.

This is not the time to taunt others with the US being number one in the world, or claiming we have the resources to fight it. I urge, like most people have done, that we stand together to end the spread of COVID-19, and espouse the African spirit of UBUNTU—I am because you are, and you are because I am.