Releasing Political Prisoners & Supporting Community Responses in the COVID-19 Pandemic are Priorities for Africa
As the COVID-19 pandemic is becoming one of the most tragic events in recent human history, the Africans Rising movement is engaging with Africans and African responses to the disease on the continent and in the diaspora.
The Africans Rising Campaign to Release Political Prisoners and Journalists, and our Pan African Solidarity Campaign Against COVID-19, #Rise4OurLives are efforts to promote African leadership, innovation, and activism in the effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Pan African Solidarity Campaign Against COVID-19, #Rise4OurLives
In this moment of global uncertainty and hardship, we are encouraging our members, supporters, and all Africans to take action in the effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and to hold African governments accountable in these efforts as well. We also call on philanthropists and philanthropic organizations to allocate funding for COVID-19 response efforts. As a part of this campaign, Africans Rising is hosting a series of Facebook Live chats and encouraging community actions to engage the continent and the diaspora in this effort. You can find out more about this campaign on our website.
Campaign to Free Political Prisoners and Journalists
In an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, Africans Rising is appealing to all African governments to release political prisoners and journalists. Poor living conditions and overcrowding in prisons and jails make it hard or impossible for incarcerated people to protect themselves from the disease, and our movement believes that imprisonment in a time of epidemic is a potential death sentence. We are promoting an appeal letter that organizations can sign to amplify public pressure on African governments. We will also be releasing a series of videos and interviews about political prisoners and journalists, to share the stories of the people unjustly imprisoned and fighting for their lives during this global health crisis. You can find out more about this campaign on our website.
We invite you to share this information about our campaigns with your audiences, readers, listeners, and viewers. Our Movement Coordinators, Coumba Toure and Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan are also available for interviews to talk more about Pan-African efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Please reach out to our media team at media@africans-rising.org to get more information about our campaigns or to schedule an interview with one of our movement coordinators.
