Meet the Irish man spending the Covid-19 pandemic protecting small communities in Malawi from the devastating disease.
Evin Joyce, 35, from a rural part of Co Laois near Glenbarrow in the Slieve Bloom Mountains, has worked in the African nation before with the United Nations.
In 2019 the country was hit by a cyclone that devastated parts of east Africa and Joyce and his team helped set up communications with remote villages across Malawi to aid their recovery.
Evin said: "Malawi was hit by a cyclone, Cyclone Idai, near the start of last year and then the UN had a vacancy... to reach out and make two way communications with some of the most rural communities that had been hit by this cyclone.
"I came home for Christmas, contract over and I was starting to look around. I was hoping to get another contract in Malawi.
"Nothing happened for two months, and with no contract and with Covid... it was like, 'Do it now or don't do it at all'."
Evin travelled to Malawi in February before Covid made its first official appearance around the end of March and - while Ireland was beginning to ramp up lockdown measures at home - Evin was spending his time getting information, soap and masks to communities who have already "been through the mill" with issues like HIV, famine and TB hitting the country hard.
Joyce said: "It was a bit surreal, because I was listening to Irish media, especially Irish radio, RTE Radio 1.
"Especially through the end of March, start of April where it was all going crazy. And I'm listening to that and I'm trying to apply it to what it's like out here because it is very, very, very different.
"In Zomba, where I am, there is one doctor per 95,000 people. It's not about flattening the curve in the healthcare system, the healthcare system is already wiped out. There is 17 respirators in the country for 19 million people.
"So, it requires a different approach and then also a different way of communicating what may be the same messages of, 'Wash your hands, social distance, wear a mask', but to people who have been through the mill here.
"There is very high prevalence of HIV... any old person here has lived through a few bouts of Cholera, has lived through lean seasons where they have really known hunger, have lost kids or know someone who has lost kids.
"So it's a whole different perception of the risks and if you're living day to day on very meager budgets in extreme poverty which is the case of most people here,
"The probability of 'maybe getting this thing' and 'maybe getting really sick' is a 'by the way',
"Like, 'I've got to feed the kids this evening and not get Malaria', which is probably a higher risk. So it is a very different approach to it and that kind of determined how the communications really should be on it."
Through meetings with community leaders, Chiefs, and healthcare workers, Evin and his team have devised a plan they hope is realistic and doable in a rural, poor and low resourced setting with little money.
From putting Covid protection measures at the water pumps of each village, to putting together mock situations where a community takes care of a family in isolation, Joyce and his team have used their time to prepare ahead of a surge in coronavirus cases in Malawi.
And a GoFundMe donation page set up by the Laois man is providing soap and masks to communities in the Zomba region with over €5,000 already raised.
Joyce said: "We're just using the best of the time we have before it really hits, and when you've got instructions of 'Don't come to the health services, we need to preserve them to deal with the illnesses that are here every day'... which is sensible.
"It will really come down to the funerals. It will be counting funerals in the morning and that's when we'll know it's really hit."
He added: "Based on talking to communities here, and especially at the water pump, everybody gets their water from the pump here.
"The handle of that water pump could infect the whole village in one day. So, the Chief in each village and the water pump committee members and the healthcare worker, were given soap and masks to give to their vulnerable people and from that it emerged the need to be able to keep a sick household in isolation so it doesn't affect the whole village.
"So, it's to get prepared for that. And it's to do that by creating a plan in advance; who are the vulnerable people and who are the volunteers who are going to provide the food, a bucket of water, firewood and going to the maize mill.
"And, because this is a poor country, I can get a box of 30 soap for €3. That's 10c per person to get a bar of soap in their hands.
"There are tailors here sitting outside their house on the side of the road with their sewing machine who can produce masks for me at about 13c for one mask.
"The health centre in this area has one doctor and some clinical officers with around eight nurses who have to look after 45,219 people. That's the number of euros I'm asking for on the GoFundMe.
"One euro for each of those people and that can really make a difference because we're spending it here on the ground.
"And it will make a difference because there's no point telling people to wash their hands and wear a mask when they honestly cannot afford an extra bar of soap that costs 10c and a mask that would be a disposable income of 13c.
"But we can sell them at subsidised costs so we are selling the pair at about 12c and I've sold about 500 through teenagers and sales agents the last week. So, I am confident that this can really make a difference."
The donation page set up by Evin and his team can be found here at Masks4Malawi on GoFundMe.
