Every morning, Dr. Yakubu Joseph begins with a prayer of thanksgiving that he is healthy and alive. These days, this ritual is especially important to him. Curfews have been imposed in many parts of the country, hitting vulnerable people hard financially and health-wise.
Health care in Nigeria is weak anyway, especially since the elite seek treatment abroad and hardly invest in the sector. The cramped living conditions and poverty further encourage transmission. Mission 21's partners on the ground try to help those people who are most at risk.
Dr. Joseph assumes that the number of infected and dead people is high. Many people do not trust the isolation centers and are afraid of stigmatization, he explains. Mission 21's partner churches are trying to reach people through social media, such as Facebook, to inform and comfort them.
"The pandemic has shown us that the church is not a building, but that people are the church," Dr. Joseph emphasizes.
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