JUBA, April 23 (Xinhua)--South Sudan's young artists have embarked on inserting catchy murals on street walls as part of a campaign to raise awareness about the COVID-19 pandemic.
The youth who are part of "Ana Taban" art initiative brings together painters, poets, musicians, fashion designers and cartoonists to promote awareness on the disease through paintings.
Manasseha Mathiang, the Initiative coordinator who is also Ana Taban team leader, said the group on Tuesday launched a campaign dubbed #WagifCorona, which means "Stop Corona" to counter misinformation, myths and hate speech about COVID-19 pandemic through visual arts.
Citizens are getting inadequate information about COVID-19 pandemic that has been exacerbated by ignorance and hesitation of the population to take precautions seriously, said Mathiang, adding that they are using arts to express right messages in visual form.
The 35-year-old artist said the COVID-19 pandemic poses a huge threat hence the need for the youth in South Sudan to unite with health experts and confront it with vigor.
"Being a body that brings hundreds of artists who are influential in the society, we have tasked ourselves to play a role to do three major things, namely sanitizing communities about COVID-19 preventive messages," Mathiang told Xinhua.
He said the group is using visual arts to depict community-wide steps that are needed to increase physical distancing as an effective means to contain the spread of the virus.
"We are using this campaign to fight misinformation through arts as our primary tool in disseminating accurate information. So far our artists have started drawing murals on the street walls," said Mathiang.
"We made a call on social media for citizens to play a role in the campaign by also donating their walls. Just give us your walls so that the passerby in your community can have a chance to see the messages," he added.
Mathiang said the youthful campaigners are also using music to sensitize civilians about the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that they plan to have a live performance on Facebook to showcase music, spoken word and comedy touching on the importance of personal hygiene to curb further spread of the virus.
"The performance will portray messages that encourage the public to frequently wash their hands with soap, and keep a social distance," said Mathiang.
He said the campaign started in the capital Juba but will later proceed to other parts of the country including refugee camps.
South Sudan has reported four COVID-19 cases and authorities have put measures in place to contain the spread of the virus, including a night-time curfew, and banning all large public gatherings. Enditem
