Production:
Malcolm Lucard
Videography:
Louis C. Mouchet
Imagine if everything you heard about COVID-19 prevention was in a language you didn’t fully understand. For many people around the world, this is the reality they face. Multi-lingual refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are coming to the rescue, using the power of language to keep communities healthy. They do this by making videos about COVID-19 prevention in the many languages they speak: Arabic, Bambara, Bengali, French, Fulbe, Ga, Hausa, Italian, Moré, Pigin, Tigrino, Twi, Pashtun, Urdu and Wolof, among others.
They also reach out to asylum seekers and migrants on their own terms, through music, sports and other activities. “Apart from this, we try to decodify the ‘fake news’,” says Christian, one of the volunteers, “and inform people that the virus is here and it’s causing a lot of deaths. To prevent this we all need to stay at home, take preventative measures and be safe.”
In 2018, Hassan Al Kontar was stranded in an airport for 7 months as his asylum claim was reviewed. Now, Hassan is once again in the news — this time for the ways he gives back to the country that took him in.
The Covid-19 pandemic is forcing a critical examination of how communities and countries prepare for multiple, overlapping crises. Here are a few lessons the Japanese Red Cross Society learned after the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown ten years ago this month.
In places where conflict or crisis means basic services are scarce, the use of data is saving lives. But protecting people’s physical well-being, experts say, is also about protecting their digital profile in cyberspace.
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