University of Portsmouth leads fight in cutting Kenyan Covid cases
ACADEMICS from the city’s university have been helping to reduce the spread of Covid infections in Kenya after working with with local community groups, youth workers and artists to create a public health campaign.
The Action against Covid Transmission (ACT) Nairobi project developed arts-based resources to support Mukuru, an informal settlement in Nairobi. Mukuru is a densely populated community of over 100,000 households making public health measures such as social distancing challenging.
Researchers from the University’s Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries ran online workshops and tutorials to help local groups create a range of art based messages including comic strips aimed at children, murals, puppet shows and music songs and videos.
Many of the resources have been created and adopted by local teachers to be used in schools.
Dr Cressida Bowyer, project lead for the University of Portsmouth, said: ‘We're so pleased with what we've been able to produce with this response action project in just a few months during lockdown. A special thanks to our Nairobi co-researchers and the UK team.
‘Through the project we gained a greater understanding of the lived experiences of different communities and the challenges they face in the Covid-19 era. It highlighted the need for creative and effective public health messaging.’
