PERSONAL STORY 1

Feliciano works in the community of Nanatha in Mozambique. This community is a small community located on the coast of Nampula. We talked to Feliciano about how the corona-virus has affected the community. Feliciano tells us that people were informed about the virus by mainly the radio at the first place.Feliciano says that by the time the virus reached africa people where starting getting messages from each other about the situation and also on the locally used media the information about the virus was shared. The main information that reached Nanatha was that this virus came from China caused by animals and that the virus is said to cause respiratory diseases and could spread very quickly among humans. The worldwide advice to wash hands, use mouth masks and to stay at home also reached our home by radio.

Feliciano has experienced that news of the global corona outbreak was not well received in the community. "First, because we heard that the disease started in China, some people from rural areas thought that this disease does not attack everywhere but in China alone. As it started to spread, people were waiting for the government to take care of us by providing people with for example free masks. When the virus spread in Mozambique, the police drove around and checked people at home to see if everyone had a mask."

A few weeks have passed now. The virus reached the village. There are many problems at this point. Feliciano noticed that most people ignore the use of a mask and refuse to stay at home. The reason for this is that if people don't go outside they don't have food. And how should people stay at home without food? Because of this problem there are a lot problems with the people and the police, they are fighting against each other in the village's.

Feliciano says that in his opinion to fight this virus they have to collaborate. The people say that there are not many cases of the corona-virus in Mozambique but the doctors say that the number of cases in Mozambique is still going up. Feliciano says that there is a lot of non - true information spread in the rural. He also thinks that the mindset of people has to change, people don't need to use the mask because they are afraid of the police, they should wear it because they want to protect themself and their beloved ones. There is still no good implementation of the safety measures at this point. Feliciano says that the implementation is hard, in the past we needed a lot of time to educate people about HIV or other diseases, it took years to implement behavior in the community.

Feliciano says that he experiences the lockdown as a difficult period. He informs himself and his family by listening to the radio to hear what the president of Mozambique says about the situation.There are no tourist and there are no volunteers, also there is not a lot of food. There are no meetings and he can't go to the church this makes him really sad and he hopes that everything will turn back to normal soon.