Photo credit: Badara Preira (Instagram: @badarapreira)
Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) claimed we are suffering an ‘infodemic’ as a result of misinformation about the Coronavirus. The rapid rise in the impacts of COVID-19 across the world has also driven an increase in incidents of ‘fake news’ circulating about the virus, which can be disastrous for communities. Such potential sources of ‘fake news’ range from drinking alcohol to prevent the contraction of the virus to inhaling hot steam. While some sources of misinformation may be harmless, others can pose a significant threat to the general population. This threat has been significantly increased in Sub-Saharan Africa, where some governments have even denied the significance of the threat posed by COVID-19.
The dissemination of vital information to rural populations in Senegal is a challenge. In Senegal, most official sources of COVID-19 information are conveyed in French, despite 74% of the population not speaking the language. With 40 local languages and dialects, conveying vital information to the rural population of Senegal is challenging. Additionally, most official sources of health information is only in written form, which is inaccessible to those who are illiterate, totalling 50% of Senegal’s population.
In partnership with Jokalante, United Purpose has been using innovative ICT tools to empower people with life-saving, factual information about COVID-19 while dispelling fake news which may be circulating amongst communities. The word ‘Jokalante’ translates to ‘dialogue’ in the Wolof language, and that is exactly what it facilitates. To ensure maximum reach and address the challenges in conveying information, Jokalante uses: radio broadcasts, jingles and mobile voice messages recorded by trusted voices in local languages to disseminate relevant information amongst different communities across Senegal.
The radio broadcasts consist of discussions between radio hosts and medical experts, with the public encouraged to call in via a free phone number to contribute to the discussion or ask additional questions. These radio broadcasts have proved exceptionally useful to inform the general public of the virus’ symptoms and how it is transmitted while also promoting protection measures such as wearing masks, social distancing and the importance of hand-washing. The radio broadcasts have also focused on tackling counter claims that the measures are unnecessary, preventing the stigmatisation of people affected and the importance of respecting the previous nationwide curfew. These radio broadcasts have had exceptional national reach, with these programmes featuring on 12 community radio stations with a total combined audience of one million.
In-between the radio programmes, short jingles of less than a minute with music and other gimmicks are broadcast, summarising essential health information to the population which are regularly played on the same radio stations. This includes, ‘Together we will beat it’ by Nigerian reggae artist Sunny Neji, which you can listen to here.
Additionally, targeted mobile phone voice messages are sent that contain short messages recorded by trusted voices in the community such as religious leaders and lead farmers. Thanks to this approach, nearly 31,000 people have been receiving targeted audio messages which contain important information in their native language twice a week directly to their mobile phones.