COVID-19 AWARENESS & HAND WASHING SITES

 I am the initiator  and the chairman board of director of Inter Aid South Sudan, I was born in 1986 in South Sudan two years after the outbreak of the 21 years civil war in Sudan ending up becoming a refugee at just the age of three, an orphan at the age of 12 and started suffering osteomyelitis due to staphylococcus aureus. I had surgery twice on his left tibia during my live in the refugees’ camp and thank to UNHCR and   inter Aid’s Uganda that I my life was saved.  And it has always been my childhood dream to join lifesaving mission so to save other people’s life, As a student in the university, I served in several capacity depending the right of the students from disadvantaged communities, served with inter Aid Uganda and Now incorporated inter Aid into South Sudan addressing many community’s challenges including COVID-19 

With the spread expanding  threat of the corona virus into South Sudan,Our project is about creating awareness on COVID-19  and installing public hand washing stations to reduce the  continuous spread of COVID 19 pandemic and other infectious diseases like eyes infection, diarrhea, respiratory tract infections cholera, uncomfortable intestinal diseases, water borne diseases among others  plus other  problems that came as a result of Corona Virus like famine, resigning of health workers due to lack of motivations ,  economic breakdown affecting livelihood, limited information, malnutrition of young people, Human right violation, Continuous expansion of   dirty environment which is not safe, fresh, and clean for health workers, Inadequate  sensitization to the community on how to prevent such a similar pandemic outbreak in future, Poor  health care standard and  it is upon these reasons as to why , I feel this funding can help us in solving these problems.

Our Specific problem which are solving is the   continues spread of COVID 19 pandemic and other , but there are also many other associated problems likes other infectious diseases like eyes infection, diarrhea, respiratory tract infections cholera, uncomfortable intestinal diseases, water borne diseases among others  plus other associated problems like   Poor hygiene ,  and limited  hand washing equipment’s,  dirty environment which is not safe, fresh, and clean for health workers, Inadequate  sensitization to the community on how to prevent such a similar pandemic outbreak in future, Poor  health care standard,, defying   orders of  staying at home and continues  going  to work since most of our population depends on  daily paid jobs. We saw already that  Elevate prize has got the potential to solve all of the communities  mentioned  problems  and it upon these reason that I feel humble to submit our application.

Our project is called creating awareness on COVID-19 and installing Public hand Washing Station, Our YouTube link has got a sample but we intend to build a better and durable one above  with better capacity and equipment , We will make a stand made out of  metal and place a tank containers of 200 L on it , fill it  with water on daily basis and in one hundred public places for a  six month period,  Each  station will includes  a Dettol liquid soap , hand sanitizes and disinfectant and will be installed with the metal dug and inserted in the ground with a locking system around the containers to avoid stealing any of the materiel for the hand washing stations. We will prioritized the most crowded places like the markets with very many valuable items that are difficult to avoid easy contacts with like food items. We will organize training to more health workers to prepare them on how to fight COVID-19 patients and further   create more awareness to the different community on how to stay safe from CIVID-19 and other infectious diseases

We are targeting four  hundred thousand people in total ,the four hundred thousand people are living within Juba City and they  are occupying one of the most crowded  public places in South Sudan especially with the coming of peace in  South Sudan, Most of our people have begun to come back home from the bushes and refugees camps making juba City to become so crowded and against the law of social distancing , this couple with poor hygiene in the country really calls for  creating more awareness on COVID-19 and installing public hand washing stations since lock seem impossible in these area due too much level of poverty,   these hand washing project will empower us to prevent the spread of diseases and keeps our environment safe, fresh, and clean through maintaining cleanliness, through the awareness part, we will be able to   learn and sensitize our  community on how to prevent such a similar pandemic outbreak in future, intestine bacterial infections, eyes infection and diarrhea. while maintaining water , sanitation and clean hygiene will be prioritized When self-hygiene is improved, we will be creating a safer working environment for medical staff and the patients, through awareness .

Purpose-Driven: We want to reduce the spread of COVI-19 since our health care system has no capacity to handle his pandemic should it continue to spread, The project is necessary because it will prevent and lower the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases and I am sure that this will inspire other change makers to continue to do something great for humanity. 

It was back  then  2013 when I was doing my internship with Inter Aid Uganda, I learnt about the importance of such a project  then I started  thinking of making it our priority when we registered inter Aid into South Sudan last year but the  recent spread COVID-19 in South Sudan  triggered the ideas this February    and how it is claiming the lives of so many innocent people worldwide and as a change maker, I started analyzing  our health care system and its capacity and how they would struggle  handling the spreading of  COVID-19 and thereafter then I realized that we may not have the capacity to treat it the disease but we may have the capacity to  prevent and reduce  it spread and that was when started making  sharing  the idea with Doctor Patrick Buruga who is the former deputy Country Director of Intra-health International Inc. and currently  is our  Executive Director of inter Aid South Sudan. He admired, approved and elaborated more on the importance of the idea and final asked me to put the ideas in written thus leading to the emergency of this concrete idea.

It is because I am a citizen of humanity and would love to save the lives of many people especially with threat from COVID-19, improve their health care and their economic status by allowing them a safe working environment. Reduce other infectious diseases and water borne diseases and prepare our community for such a future calamities, reduce the chances of infecting our doctors, health workers and improve the livelihood and resilient of many people.

I am well position to implement this project because of so many reasons of which among others are my knowledge about how the project works couple with my leadership, project implementation and reporting skill not forgetting my desire lead my people in future meaning I must do things that will leave legacy behind. Secondly I am supported by a group highly qualified and experience expertise both from within and abroad for instance Mr. Patrick Buruga has been implementing CDC project for many years while working as the Deputy Country Director of Intra health international Inc. beside he is a graduate of public health from Hebrew university in Israel, he will be our supervisor and advisor on how to implement this project. Thirdly, we also have a former UN FAO top level manager among us, he is called   Severino Oipo and he is a master degree holder from Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, He is another asset for this implementing this project and lastly is the availability of ready project managers’ expert from our head office in Kampala (Uganda). Conclusively I think these proves beyond reasonable doubt that i have the ability to implement this project. Inter Aid has one of the best policy and programm that has been convincing many donors for many years before and our transparency level will please you to continue supporting us. For more information donors like  UNCHR and World Bank can tell you more about us.   

 we had inadequate qualified health personnel to spearhead awareness and handle case of COVID -19 on arising and we have to address this by training more people and using more expertise especially from our head office in kamplala Uganda.

The economic set backed to address our establishment and smooth operations have been address through massive resource mobilizations from many donors while training more local semi labor to handle the work of the very highly expertise so as to minimize costs and improve the value for the money that will be given to us by donors  

Inadequate equipment  to fight these diseases demotivate risk takers and our front-line staff has been address through supporting the production of local supporting items while maintaining the same recommended standard for instance we advice the about the production of local face mask and hand sanitizers and it is now plenty in the local market although at fair price.

Thieves of the equipment’s which has been a common case is addressed through involving the right authorities of those place to help provide protection to the equipment and free movement was freed for negative change makers.       

As i joined university at the time when South Sudan were just from war and yet a program called student support scheme we just lunched, many of the disadvantaged communities were not receiving the help, I spearheaded the call for the formation of Students associations and student union and I took a lead until many of our student benefited from my initiative in 2013 and we equally brute the issues of corruption to the attention of the government of South Sudan.  I have been a leader throughout my career , I served as the president of South Sudanese Acholi student in Uganda for the higher institutions of learning  , then the secretary of  finance among Equatoria Student and , Held equatoria student medical fund a project funded by the former three states governors of Equatoria in South Sudan and finally leading  inter Aid team on many project implementation and assessment thus providing evidence  trust and my leadership ability as they entrusted  me to register and incorporate  inter Aid into  South Sudan.

Inter Aid Uganda and Inter Aid South Sudan is one Organization that was by limited by fund to change from being an incorporated NGO to an International NGO. For more you can inquire from Inter Aid Uganda by email info@interaiduganda.org or their website site www.interaiduganda.org

We have a Proof of the concept as we are writing this proposal, we have already installed one piece of the resilience public hand washing station placed in the heart of Custom market in Juba City South Sudan and our feasibility results shows that it has  worked a very well, many of the people can testify that indeed they are now feeling more secured since they can now access to  right facilities for washing their hand although it is not enough in term of it scale and scope of our operation and this  give a clear picture  to the idea that the concept is market-ready. Furthermore, We have also demonstrated to the people already and have seen the public health sector improving as well as the hygiene. Secondly we are not just relying on our feasibility study of the concept, the innovation has been  approved  by so many  international Organizations already ,for instance the  like the WHO,UNICEF CDC has recommended hand washing and more preventive awareness thus make it    clear  that this is a workable idea although it is first of its time in South Sudan and  we are confident that  hand washing is the right measure to combat the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

• Creating awareness will make every informed and reminded to take care about the spreading corona virus and it will further gives us a clear tips on how we can prevent or reduce the spread of the diseases. Tips like social distance, continuous hand washing and staying at home for those who can afford will help many people to stay safe from the disease and these result will begins to be visible just after two weeks and the indicators’ will be the decline in the number of new cases to be confirm and the rate at which it is increasing now and in a later time frames.
• Secondly building Resilience Public hand Washing stations with all the washing support materials and giving people the chance to always wash their hand will reduce the chances of the virus/bacteria from entering people’s bodies which turn will reduce the spread of the COVID-19 as well as other infections.
• Thirdly , providing  supports to the front line workers like training, materials like face mask, examinations gloves , disinfectants will motivates the health workers to continue to face this pandemic and these  will reduce the rate of accident during their work which will result into safe front line workers with less threat.
• Fourthly we have a program of empowering economically left behind and most affected groups of people , we will provide entrepreneurship training and  extend small credit to most marginalize group of people and this program will make them start a lot of small scale business and improve their earning which in long run 
• We have a program of food support to the most affected victims of the corona virus, we  will be extending food support to the most affected and vulnerable group of people like the old disables, very old aged people help save lives and help build more resilience societies . When we give them these food support they will be in position to access food and continue to live alive and get the energy to do some small work leading to a resilience community.

currently Juba is hosting up to four hundred thousand people and half of the that number access Custom market meaning we  are currently serving up around  fifty   thousand people, we intend to serve the whole of Juba City thus meaning our target population of the beneficiaries in one year has to be four hundred thousand people and in five years time , we are targeting up to one million people.

• Creating awareness, installing communication equipment with audio recorded taped on a vehicle and drive around the city while playing the recorded information to inform and remind the public to take precaution measures.
• Secondly we will be  building resilience Public hand Washing stations with all the washing support materials and giving people the chance to always wash their hand to prevent themselves from getting infected ,
•  Thirdly we will be Protecting health workers through safety Training to health workers, motivating and supporting with protective wears like face mask, examination gloves, disinfectants and hand sanitizers and train them on how to handle Corona virus.
• Fourthly we will be supporting the economically disadvantaged groups through entrepreneurship training and small credit extension to improve their economic status and have a society that can afford lock-down in future.
•  Fifthly we will be  Supporting the most vulnerable groups like the very old disables with  Food and  cash disbursement to increase their choice of items , it will be given to the most affected people and we are doing this to reduce the spread of COVID-19, other infectious diseases, serve the vulnerable and save the live of the most affected.

Our major and the only strategy of resource mobilization is through grant writing, we have a number of donors whom we expect to write to them. We have written to the Global giving Accelerator already and our project has been preapproved to participate in their community and we are further planning to write grant to the clean cooking Alliance through their department Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) under USAID’s open innovation program that tests and scales creative solutions to any global development challenge. DIV provides flexible, tiered grant funding to test new ideas, take strategic risks, build evidence of what works, and advance the best solutions. We look for solutions that demonstrate rigorous evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and a viable pathway to scale and sustainability, UNICEF, UNHCR, WHO, and many others donors.

We have just started raising fund ,we have a number of donors whom we expect to write to them. We have written to the Global giving Accelerator already and our project has been preapproved to participate in their community campaigning  and we are further planning to write grant to the clean cooking Alliance through their department Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) under USAID’s open innovation program that tests and scales creative solutions to any global development challenge. DIV provides flexible, tiered grant funding to test new ideas, take strategic risks, build evidence of what works, and advance the best solutions. We look for solutions that demonstrate rigorous evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and a viable pathway to scale and sustainability,  UNHCR, WHO, and many others donors. 

We seek to  write grant to the clean cooking Alliance through their department Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) under USAID’s open innovation program that tests and scales creative solutions to any global development challenge. DIV provides flexible, tiered grant funding to test new ideas, take strategic risks, build evidence of what works, and advance the best solutions. We look for solutions that demonstrate rigorous evidence of impact, cost-effectiveness, and a viable pathway to scale and sustainability,

We further seek to write to Global Giving, Accelerator UNHCR, WHO, and many others donors. 

We have a yearly budget of 240,000 US Dollars and 480,000 US Dollars for the two years period.

Awareness on COVID-19 and it preventive measures will cost us                      22,000         US Dollars .

Building 40 Resilience hand washing stations plus other services like water refilling of the tanks, putting Dettol soap and hand sanitizers for one year will cost us 58,000 US Dollars     

Supporting the front-line health workers in all  the  City hospitals  and among the COVID-19 task-force with 2500 packets of  50 face mask,1000 packet  of 50 examination gloves and 1000 pieces of disinfectants liquids will cost us 24000 US Dollars.

 Entrepreneurship training and small credit extension to 30 people cost  15,000 US Dollars.

Food assistant to the most vulnerable people 100 US Dollars each for one year period 300 people 100 each 30,000 US Dollars 

Administrative expenses and salaries 91,000 US Dollars  thus our yearly grand total is    240,000 US Dollars.

The Elevate Prize is one of the only forum to  help us in our struggle of  combating the spread of corona virus and other  infectious diseases like eyes infection, diarrhea, respiratory tract infections cholera, uncomfortable intestinal diseases and other water borne diseases among others  plus other associated problems like   Poor hygiene ,  and limited  hand washing equipment’s,  dirty environment which is not safe, fresh, and clean for health workers, Inadequate  sensitization to the community on how to prevent such a similar pandemic outbreak in future, Poor  health care standard,, defying   orders of  staying at home and continues  going  to work since most of our population depends on  daily paid jobs. We saw already that  Elevate prize has got the potential to solve all of the communities  mentioned  problems  and it upon these reason that I feel humble to submit our application.

We have had problems that has been existing in our community since our creation  and we have failed to find a lasting solutions to them them on our own, for instance good health care , peaceful coexistence , Human right violations among other and yet  our biggest set back has been inadequate financial for establishing innovation and solution seeking centers, lack of will to support a local initiatives from our people .   it is upon these reasons  as to why , we feel that making partnership you will help us gain both get the financial and mentoring elevation status.

We love organizations and would love to partner with Organizations that support humanitarian and sustainable development goal vision 2030  and would allow us to be their implementing philanthropy in this part of the world.