Finding Youth Led Solutions To COVID-19—Lockdown Live!

To write this report, The Youth Café and Sussex Writes at the University of Sussex joined forces to address the challenges that young people are facing due to COVID-19.  The Lockdown Live series was an initiative planned to create awareness about the global situation of the world in the wake of COVID -19.

Depression, stress and anxiety among the youth are the most common psychological disturbances during this Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report by The Youth Café, a Kenyan based Pan-African nonprofit organization. It further states that Covid-19 has created uncertainties about the future amongst the youth.

Government measures to control the spread of the pandemic such as lockdowns, quarantines and cessation of movement, led to massive job losses.

A Series of events /webinars were carried out to address issues that have emerged across platforms as a result of COVID-19 pandemic. The intention was to help find a coping mechanism for the situation as well as find solutions to emerging problems. Key focuses on strengthening meaningful engagement with the youth, amplifying their voice and actions in supporting the expansion of civic spaces and advancing civic engagement.

The objective of the initiative was to understand the struggle regarding learning, mental health and misinformation. 

Willice Onyango, the Executive Director of The Youth Café, said they organized 15 Zoom webinars, in which participants from different nations participated and freely talked about their challenges. They also did over 100 Facebook live events on the impact of Covid-19 on the youth.

“This pandemic has resulted in the loss of many lives and created uncertainties and negativity towards life,” says part of the report. The key issues include; mental health, misinformation, Challenges in learning under lock down, job losses and loss of life.

The participants who took part in the series of online meetings by The Youth Café reported to have received a greater sense of positivity, togetherness as well as new insight and purpose in their lives. This was as a result of the wealth of knowledge they were equipped with on coping mechanisms and their involvement in providing solutions to the issues as a result of Covid-19

However, Onyango realized that although Covid-19 was tough on the youth, it has also exposed the mental challenges that existed even before the pandemic.

“Mental health is a serious issue that individuals should acknowledge. This calls for awareness and intentionality in managing our health,” he said.

He added that the governments and associated organizations should develop elaborate mental health programs for the public.

“Acknowledging mental challenges and actively seeking help is the most important step in the process. Having a strong support system lessens the likelihood of mental issues,” he said.

The Youth Café will make use of the research in its decision making, webinars for peer discussions, expert opinions, survey tools and the perspectives of our team members presented as blogs.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought to light other emerging issues like; Gender Based Violence, rise in teenage pregnancies, Domestic violence and Corruption (Covid-19 Funds). These topics are areas that The Youth Café can offer its expertise on and an opportunity to make key contributions through research.

There is an ongoing investigation on alleged misappropriation of COVID 19 funds in Kenya which exposes the lack of transparency and accountability in the management of the funds. The Youth café continues to engage youth to track COVID-19 funds through the Action for Transparency (A4T) portal, despite increasing difficulties in accessing information on their allocation and utilization.