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COVID-19, the wake up call for global action

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In light of the current global pandemic, Hewan Berhane, a ONE Champion in Africa, is sharing why COVID-19 is the wake up call we all need to take global action.

Exasperating; is it not? The overwhelming spread of a virus in all corners of the world. How do we stop it? We will stick to the World Health Organization’s recommendations. But here is another essential question to ask: What is our take away from this health crisis?

Our reaction during the first month of the COVID-19 is proof we have yet to discover that none of us are safe until all of us are safe. COVID-19 is a global pandemic that has crossed international boundaries. We cannot flatten the curve of the pandemic until we join forces and bravely stand together putting all our differences aside.

I believe COVID-19 is the wake up call for global action the world desperately needs. Despite the fact that challenges in different countries are unique, COVID-19 has proven to be a global issue that requires international partnership in response. Individual response efforts are things of the past and are not the answer that will get us through these hard times.

In the past and even now the world is extremely comfortable in tackling challenges exclusively. In the midst of all the modernization and development, as long as history enables us to understand, we have lost sight of what ties humanity together. As the youth of the present generation we face the consequence of these isolated efforts; evermore highlighting differences to mobilize for global actions. It is essential to take a step back to evaluate situations from a broad perspective to come up with partnerships that will stand the trial of modern day challenges.

Again the lack of understanding of the magnitude of COVID-19 and its utter indifference to the borders we define and the differences we highlight is a wake up call for global action. COVID-19 is a crisis where we finally have been exposed for our lack of global partnerships. The silver lining in all the life lost is for us as the human race to stand ever more truthful and devoted for global action.

As the world evolves and time passes, there will be other challenges facing humanity. The nature of these challenges will most likely have the same nature in the utter neglect to modern day borders and separation. Moving forward we will not get away with being divided. We keep waiting for the magical solution but the most eloquent answer to the most pressing issues of our time is global action and partnerships.

We will come out of this, but it’s simply a matter of determining how many lives we will lose to get to the other side of this pandemic. Being divided won’t help us survive the most challenging heath crisis of our time. We need to stand together, collaborate, nurture partnerships, and build an inclusive world for a brighter future.

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