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One day some years ago, Chief Egunu Williams had just returned home from his farm in the south of Nigeria when a man from a nearby community came asking for a loan. 

Boniface (not his real name), a father of six and nursing assistant at the Saint Jean de Dieu hospital in Tanguiéta, in northwestern Benin, about 600 km from Cotonou, had a painful experience with viral hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver caused by a virus, which can be fatal.

In March 2020, the Government of Panama announced restrictions on movement to contain the spread of COVID-19. The first weeks of lockdown were an uncertain time, says Venus Tejada, president of the Panamanian Association of Trans People.  

The UN country teams continue their efforts to provide local and national authorities worldwide support in the fight against COVID-19. Today, we highlight some of those efforts.

Lerato — not her real name — is a 20-year-old first-year student at the local university. She hunkers down on her chair a few metres from where I’m sitting with her head fixed to the floor. She looks sad, tired and dejected, avoiding any eye contact, as if ashamed of what we were about to talk about.