The Ministry of Communication in Djibouti, in collaboration with UNDP, has set up a unique programme to raise awareness against this pandemic by launching an awareness campaign that calls for the creativity by involving the population in designing awareness and prevention messages (videos, songs, photos, testimonials etc.) to reduce the transmission of the virus within the family and in public places.

Fatouma Abdi, adviser to the Minister of Communication said that "following the step-by-step deconfinement, we thought it would be useful to sensitize the population about social distancing hand washing, the wearing of masks, and on all vigilance measures that can save lives".

On this occasion, a Whatsapp number was set up where people can send their awareness messages against covid 19 in four languages: French, Arabic, Afar and Somali.

Hibo Mohamed, UNDP Djibouti Programme Officer, said that “ 20 videos were received, seven of which were shortlisted  in four languages. Five of them have been validated and two have already been posted on the UNDP Facebook page. There is a video shared by Awad Hicham Amin who shot a video to raise awareness about handwashing, wearing a mask and respecting the social distancing. She added "We plan to publish eight videos a day. The winners of this competition will win between 3000 FD and 5000FD of communication credit. The winners will be selected based on the number of likes clicked on the videos”.

Samia Hamad, UNDP Djibouti, said that "COVID-19 is more than health crisis,it has more impact on the most vulnerable groups, including women, children, people with disabilities, people living in remote areas, refugee camps and others. We believe that this approach is essential to ensure the inclusion of communities in the fight against this epidemic. ». She added that "Governments can provide health services, provide clinical care, but stopping transmission is community-driven. »

The aim of this campaign is to stop the spread of COVID-19 among the population in Djibouti and raising people awareness about the importance of social distancing and  understand more the dangers of the epidemic.