Kliptown Covid-19
Residents’ initiative to combat the spread of Covid-19 in their community
Read our 5 October 2021 article in the International Centre for Climate Change and Development’s (ICCCD) Voices from the Frontline: Solidarity Kliptown Style - A story of freedom amidst covid lockdowns
Watch our September 2020 documentary film: Solidarity? Revealing the Everyday Lived Reality of Covid-19 in Kliptown, Soweto
Read our 3 June 2020 Op-Ed in the Daily Maverick: “Kliptown Superheroes Take Up Fight Against Covid-19 in Service of the People”
Be a part of Ubuntu: community, compassion, humanity.
Collaborate.
Why do we use the term collaborate? Because it embraces the spirit of Ubuntu: ‘there is a need for understanding not vengeance, ubuntu not victimization’. Collaborating with this initiative you become part of the team of Kliptown residents and 1955 who are working heroically to support their community for short term action against Covid-19 and long-term dignity.
100% of your contribution goes directly to the Kliptown community.
Meet the people and place, be a part of this global community effort. The project will be run by the existing resident owned, Kliptown based non profit corporation 1955. Follow us on Instagram and in our blog.
Our pilot project.
It’s been up and running since March 2020.
Everyone on the 1955 crew has used their own resources to test this initiative and get it up and running. Each of us has given in ways we can. We’ve had invaluable advice from health professionals and amazing support from local businesses. Now we want to scale it up before South Africa’s national lockdown begins to lift.
We have sourced 13 compressor sprayers, one for each of the shack communities within Kliptown. We have bought bulk bleach and liquid hand soap from Blendwell Chemicals in Joburg.
It’s a simple, effective strategy. We are distributing soap and spraying the communal toilets and the truck that comes three times a week to empty them. We use a bleach/water solution.
We have an essential service permit from CIPC for the extended lockdown period.
photos courtesy of Nkwanyana and Kornienko, 2020
As residents of Kliptown, we are not waiting to become victims of Covid-19, we are fighting the spread of the virus through these simple, effective steps:
1. Toilets: disinfecting doors, door handles, interiors of toilet stalls and toilet seats with a 250ml/20L bleach/water solution (WHO, CDC) and compressor sprayers.
2. Hand washing: supporting vulnerable individuals and washing stations with hand soap.
3. Dignified personal hygiene: provision of adequate toilet paper.
4. Public health messaging: Covid-19 information, updates, hand washing and vaccine (posters, stencilling, wall art, facebook).
The bottles are upcycled, we buy from the grannie collecting, clean and fill with hand soap, and finally distributed to community members.
photos courtesy of Nkwanyana, 2020 and Kornienko, 2018
Use and share 1955’s design to make a plastic face shield from a 2L bottle and a cap.
A face shield is a tool to slow the spread of Covid-19. It helps reduce the chance of you becoming infected. It stops us from touching our own face or face mask and blocks large airborne droplets. It can be worn with or without a face mask.
A face mask prevents you from spreading the virus to others, it does not protect you from infection.
REMEMBER with Covid-19 you don’t have to have symptoms to spread the virus.
Find the latest CDC guidelines for making a Covid-19 non-medical face mask.
Read the latest WHO guidelines for use and care of a Covid-19 face mask.