A civic organisation, Oxlade Consulting has raised concern over the mental and psychosocial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Nigerians.
Lead Partner of the organisation, Adeniyi Agunloye during a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, stated that the organisation, in partnership with Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) was embarking on an 18-month project to access the mental effect of the pandemic in the West African region with a focus on Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal.
Agunloye pointed out that beyond the economic impact of Covid-19 that has disrupted the lives of people across the world, the pandemic has also had psychosocial effects such as loneliness, overcrowding of small spaces, and the effect of children being at home, restrictions of movement among others.
He explained that the project, which is to be implemented in select 48 communities across the three countries, will scale and highlight community approaches of resilience to those psychosocial effects of the pandemic as well as their resultant legal and fiscal challenges in the sub-region.
He said: “Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2019, individuals, communities and organisations have been impacted both mentally and psychologically from job losses to loss of means of livelihood and people are now finding new ways to live and organisations have built resilience in combating the effect of the pandemic.”
Project Manager, Mr. Steve Okediji noted that the essence of the project was to give governments a sense of direction and a reference point in case of any other outbreak of such magnitude.
He added that the project would also assess how People Living With Disabilities were able to build resilience during pandemics.