Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
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Covid-19 toll: The Bungoma County isolation team prepare to move the coffin of Dr Doreen Lugaliki, 39, one of the first Kenyan doctors to die from the coronavirus, during her funeral in July. (Brian Ongoro/AFP)
CORONAVIRUS

Social stigma adds to Kenya’s Covid pain

In Nairobi’s slums, residents spurn Covid-19 tests, fearing both ostracisation and the financial costs of being quarantined

  • Argwings Odera
8 min read
Many social service professionals are contributing through civil society organisations that have been doing an amazing job in filling the vacuum by providing food parcels, hygiene and medication supplies to vulnerable people, and in some cases counselling support. (Andreea Campeanu/Reuters)
CORONAVIRUS

Social workers are an untapped resource to address the psychosocial effects of Covid-19

What the government seems to have missed is that we are facing not just a medical crisis, but a psychosocial predicament that may have far-reaching consequences

  • Shahana Rasool
6 min read
Changed: Anathi Msindo, a former addict who stole to pay for drugs, attended a three-month diversion programme at the Walter Sisulu Child and Youth Care Centre. She is now back at school. (Hiram Alejandro Durán/M&G)
ARREST

Child offender closes the circle

Children commit crimes. The reasons they do are rarely simple and the solution is not a criminal record

  • Athandiwe Saba
6 min read
The Mail & Guardian and the Gauteng department of social development hosted a Critical Thinking Forum on March 22 at the Gordon Institute of Business Science to celebrate the critical role of social workers.
CRITICAL THINKING FORUM

Champions of the voiceless

Indispensable role of social workers highlighted at forum

  • Leigh Wils
6 min read