The World Health Organisation on the 11th of March 2020 declared COVID-19 a pandemic. This declaration affected the way we live as the pandemic affected every area of our lives— education, health, sanitation, water and hygiene, business, entertainment – and basically, everything that makes us human. With over 118 million confirmed cases and nearly 2.63 million deaths worldwide, the pandemic, which is now being curtailed with the emergence of vaccines is gradually being defeated.
Across the world, journalists have risen to the responsibility of informing, educating and ensuring that citizens receive the necessary information to help manage and curb the spread of the virus. At the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, we have contributed to properly reporting the impact of the pandemic by supporting journalists through two of our initiatives, the COVID-19 Reality Check project and the Free to share initiative, which are both geared at ensuring that the right information about the pandemic is accessed by the people.
The commemoration of the International Women’s Day 2021 on March 8 with the theme ‘Choose to Challenge’, further reminded us that gender bias, societal stereotypes, inequality, and all that undermine the full potential of life for women and girls and stifle the existence of this group which accounts for half of the world’s population.
We are excited to share some of the recent stories we have enabled on the coronavirus pandemic and the realities on the ground vis-à-vis government interventions and promises under our ‘Free to share’ initiative. You sure will enjoy reading this and how we marked and are still marking the International Women’s Day in this edition of our newsletter.
WSCIJ Team |
