Open Learning Exchange  is helping Somali villagers protect themselves from coronavirus, despite being isolated from formal healthcare. You can help equip them with masks and the social distancing know-how to stay safe for less than $2 per person. $100 protects 50 people. $1000 protects 500!

The pandemic is spreading rapidly in Somalia, where over 3.5 million refugees and displaced persons live, primarily in close quarters in makeshift housing. Without widespread healthcare, COVID-19 has the potential to be devastating.  

Open Learning Exchange has helped the people of Har Har, a village of 12,000 in rural Somalia, to learn basic healthcare skills and to create plans for how to prevent contagion of COVID-19. A team of female entrepreneurs launched a sewing business and have begun producing masks. 

See the tailor shop in full-swing making masks:


A team of health learners converted public health literature into an audio recording that they are broadcasting throughout the village with speakers mounted to a car, the only way to educate on a mass scale a population that has largely not had the opportunity to learn to read. 

Meanwhile, the community council is organizing health learners to open a clinic to provide basic first aid and triage. We are working with the council on strategic planning and to set up a wifi connection, to communicate with professional healthcare providers. A van will be used as an ambulance.

If we reach our goal of $25,000, we can support the program to protect the entire village. If we can reach $100,000 we can expand into nearby villages. Please help us bring healthcare to a place that direly needs it.