We now have a wifi hotspot in Kliptown. Why is this important? South Africa has opened vaccine registration to those people who are +12. We are assisting residents of Kliptown to register for their vaccine. Please support this project with the wifi=Covid Vaccine donation button below.

As news broke of the Covid pandemic over a year ago, we supported President Ramaphosa's extraordinary Covid-19 measures for South Africa. Almost a year later we're at the peak of the second wave. As the pandemic has shone light on, South Africa remains the most economically unequal country in the world. Kliptown is a dense shack community in the southern suburbs of Johannesburg. It is a place of poverty, a place that unsupported will be devastated by the spread of the virus. The national lockdown level is now lowered and people are guardedly returning to their activities outside the community. The chance of infection with the new variant is high, inside the community we we still need to have healthier practices and places.

"Hand washing and keeping common surfaces clean and disinfected are critical efforts to prevent coronavirus infections. This becomes even more urgent in dense communities where consistent physical distancing isn't possible"

Carlyn Collins, MD, MPH, a collaborator with the 1955 team.

As a local social enterprise, 1955 continues to work to bring about that change.

Collaboration. The spirit of Ubuntu: ‘there is a need for understanding not vengeance, ubuntu not victimization’ (South African Constitution, 1993).

1955 creative collaborations is a small group of like-minded old friends and colleagues with a passion for social equity. All but one of us live in Kliptown. The one non-resident came to South Africa in 2007 on a Fulbright Grant and has been involved in Kliptown for seven years. She is primarily based in BC, Canada on the traditional lands of the Secwepemc Nation.

Reports of Covid-19's devastation continue to cross the globe, we continue to act. Kliptown has high levels of extreme poverty, HIV infection, TB and chronic lung infections. The full force of Covid disease in this community was unthinkable. We have used our own resources of people and time and money and heroic effort on the ground to devise, pilot and run this simple but effective strategy to help slow the spread of the virus. There have been confirmed positive cases, residents have passed away.

100% of your contribution goes directly to the people of Kliptown. Follow our projects at www.1955.co.za and on Instagram. Meet the people and the place, be a part of this global community effort.

1955 creative collaborations (1955) is a social enterprise. It is a non profit corporation registered with the Companies and Intellectual Properties Commission in South Africa.

As residents of Kliptown, we did not wait to become victims of Covid-19, we are fighting the spread of the virus through these simple, effective steps:

1. Toilets: compressor spray door handle, interior of toilet stall and seat with a dilute bleach solution (WHO, CDC).

2. Hand washing: stations with soap and water using a tap or bucket with ladle, adequate soap in households.

3. Personal hygiene: provision of adequate toilet paper.

4. Public health messaging: Covid-19 information, updates and hand washing (posters, stencilling, wall art, facebook).

5. Covid Vaccine: we are now registering residents to get their single jab Johnson&Johnson Covid vaccine using our 1955 wifi hotspot.

A CLEAN TOILET. In Kliptown, on average seven

households share a toilet. Sometimes this is a single toilet on the street or in a communal yard. Sometimes it's a bank of toilets in the open.

Here, a communal toilet is overused and poorly ventilated. This is the perfect environment for virus shedding to build up on surfaces. The virus is now known to remain infectious for 70 hours on plastic surfaces. The latest studies are suggesting that repeated exposure to low levels of virus will lead to infection and illness.

We are regularly spraying surfaces with a 250ml/20L bleach/water solution.

Please send eTransfer to kristen@1955.co.za, this links to a Canadian bank all other methods of payment are available and supported globally.

100% of all contributions go to the people of Kliptown.