Youth volunteers in controlling COVID-19 in Huye District of Rwanda: Challenges and Enablers.

Abstract

The current study investigated the challenges and enablers for youth volunteers in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic in the Huye District of Rwanda. Specifically, the study investigated (1) the policy motives for youth in controlling the pandemic; (2) the strategies, challenges, opportunities, and lessons for youth volunteers while controlling the pandemic; (3) social media engagement for youth volunteers’ selfresilience while controlling the pandemic and (4) the moral dispositions that guided the youth volunteers’ interventions. The study adopted a qualitative approach by studying 6 government policy documents and conducting 21 semi-structured interviews with youth volunteers and those who worked with them from the government, and citizens who were selected using purposive and network sampling techniques. The study used content, descriptive qualitative, and narrative thematic analyses, with data mapped and visualized using MAXQDA software. Theoretically, the study was mainly guided by social innovation concepts, in addition to specific theories that inspired each published work. The study identified four institutional-level and four individuallevel policy motives. The study also identified four opportunities and four obstacles for youth volunteers, including training that later helped them compete in the job market and the risk of COVID-19 infection, respectively. Lessons learned by youth volunteers were also identified, and these include public speaking. Social media were helpful in information gathering, & dissemination, facilitating collaborative problem-solving, and coping with new situations. Also, the youth volunteers’ sense of patriotism for their country was among the factors that led to their involvement, guided by the identified moral xvii dispositions like patriots, public benefactors, and innovators. The study recommends that community interventionists should understand and consider the role of policies, possible moral dispositions, the role of social media, and challenges & opportunities that may impact their interventions and understand the contribution that each has to the client.