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Seven months after a fatal shipwreck off the coast of Mauritania claimed the lives of at least 62 Gambians, survivors and their families continue their struggle to recover, now in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After the shipwreck, we went home with a lot of stress. Our families have played a key role in making sure we move forward, but the pandemic suddenly means there are no handshakes or public meetings,” Abdoulie Bah said. “I opened a hairdresser and had friends and clients who kept me company.”
Another way for survivors like Bah to put distance between them and this past tragedy: to combine reaction efforts at COVID-19 in The Gambia. Starting with making soap.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), in partnership with health authorities and community leaders, this week (21-25 July) kicked off a soapmaking project involving 20 survivors of the shipwreck joined by 20 community members.
Participants are citizens of Barra, Essau and Medina Serigne Mass in The North Shore region of The Gambia, from where 85% of those survived the December tragedy, as well as those who were intercepted in a momentary boat a few days later. .
With the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, network members are trained through the country’s Department of Community Development to produce soap. They also advertise the activity as a new set of capacities and a subsistence opportunity to meet the growing demand for hygiene products.
By the end of the week, participants expect to produce more than 3,000 soap loaves, which will be distributed through the fitness government in communities along the Gambo-Senegal border with hygiene-limited products.
With survivors and their families working together, the initiative also aimed at promoting community-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) among survivors. A series of activities – including group discussions, psycho-drama reenactments – were integrated throughout the soapmaking initiative, emphasizing the importance of peer support and social networks.
“Since schools are closed and businesses are not as usual, it provides us with a replacement for the environment to have interaction in anything meaningful. The total procedure comes to teamwork, which builds acceptance among participants from other communities,” Bah said. “Some of us can spend even more on making soap during this pandemic.”
Trained MHPSS Ambassadors guided families and network members on how to meet psychosocial needs.
“COVID-19 has ended so many activities, so this initiative will serve as a source of income of choice. The integration of psychosocial aid is also very important, to inspire network members to help each other during this period,” Babou said. Loum, member of the Barra Village Development Committee.
“This initiative has highlighted the resistance of communities to the pandemic,” said Dr. Simeonette De Assis, IOM’s Head of Migration Health in The Gambia. “While we continued to mobilize the skills of returnees to produce a variety of hygiene products and protective equipment, it was also a perfect tool for survivors of a shipwreck to come out of a tragedy and create a strong sense of network by contributing particularly to the COVID-19 reaction. Efforts.
This initiative is to strengthen the sustainable and holistic reintegration of returnees, a task funded through the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund and implemented through IOM in collaboration with the International Trade Centre, the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organization.
Distributed through the APO Group on behalf of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Media filesDownload logo
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