Overview of Africa Educates Her Campaign Angola. Interview with Sofonie Dala. Bonus

COVID-19 lockdown in Angola has had a devastating impact on children and young ladies with 80 percent saying they learned little or nothing during the pandemic. According to the results, 60 percent of the children reported had no contact with teachers at all during and after lockdown.

This short video provides an overview of the challenges and issues that girls in Angola have faced during the COVID-19 related school closures (this include some of the issues the girls we interviewed shared with us) and what actions we have taken as part of the #AfricaEducatesHer campaign to promote girls re-entrance to school.

Hello! We are here again, to give some brief considerations of Africa Educates Her Campaign that was carried out in Angola from August to November 2020.

My name is Sofonie Dala, I am the organizer of the Africa Educates Her Campaign in Angola, which aims to bring awareness around issues that hinder girls and women from accessing education during the COVID 19 pandemic.

This campaign was divided into two stages, during the schools closures and after school reopening. In the first phase we recorded over twenty video interviews and over thirty interviews in the second stage, where students shared with us their fears and challenges during the pandemic and how the covid-19 affected their studies.

The second part of the program we call ''Girls Back to School After Lockdown Campaign'' aiming to certify that there is no weak compliance to COVID-19 measures in schools and also to help us understand why children and youth may experience anxiety and concern (as schools reopen)".

Today I am here with Laura, one of the girls who participated in the interviews, she will talk about her life and how the covid-19 affected her as a student.

Laura's Feedback

Hello, my name is Laura, I am a 12th grader high school student. I am here once again to share with you how covid-19 has affected my academic life. 

The coronavirus affected me a lot in the sense that I stayed a long time without studying (over 6 months). I would like to say that at school we are complying with social distancing and we are following the prevention rules against covid-19.

I also would like to mention that I already forgot some subjects that we studied in the beginning of the academic year, but fortunately, some teachers have been recapping the classes so that we can remember what we have forgotten.

How have teachers behaved? Do they attend classes?

Teachers have been attending classes, but sometimes they enter the classroom in a bad mood fearing to catch the virus.

How is the dynamic at school? Have all students returned to classrooms?

No, not all of them, some students did not return to school because they are afraid of covid-19.

Has your school been following the covid-19 prevention rules?

Yes, they have been checking our temperature with the thermometer, we constantly wash our hands with water and soap and we keep a distance of 1 meter from each other in the classroom.

And what do you think about our campaign? What is the impact that it caused on you?

I really liked the campaign, it gave me an opportunity to express how covid-19 affected me, since this virus affected not only my academic life but other work activities  I use to do.

Click here to watch Laura's first interview

https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2020/10/girls-back-to-school-after-lockdowns_31.html

In addition to what was said above, we distributed some school and bio-safety materials to some of the most vulnerable girls.

Distribution of school and biosafety materials

Click here to watch Ivete's interview

https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2020/09/africa-educates-her-campaign-is-ongoing.html

Click here to watch Flavia's first interview 

https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2020/09/africa-educates-her-campaign-angola.html

Common picture with children

We intended to distribute more materials and reach the rural areas to cover those girls who have been left behind. Unfortunately, due to lack of financial resources, we were unable to reach them this year. But we will do our best to get there next year if we manage to raise some funds to address these challenges.

Click here to see the entire campaign from August to November 2020

1. Celebrating the completion of Girls back to school campaign: 

https://sofoniedala.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-grand-finale-congratulations-we-are.html

2. Celebrating the successful completion of Africa Educates Her Campaign - Angola:

 https://she-leads.blogspot.com/2020/10/congratulations-we-are-celebrating.html

Link to signup form and pledge: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hGOHt-E0TDUBT_oNswL1I34ynB1FtLZLsq_m3HjEnDY/edit

Don't miss this opportunity to bring girls back to school. Join us!

Share your experiences learning / teaching during the school closures & the projects or initiatives you've launched to get girls back to school post #COVID-19 in your local communities.