How to live without internet connection in a COVID world

How would you stay up to date about the COVID-19 pandemic if you do not have an internet connection?

CNN reports about Angerla Montiel who lives close to Maicao in Colombia. She got to hear about the pandemic from her neighbours.

They said a deadly virus "like a whooping cough" was gripping the country and had even hit the nearby city of Maicao. But she was skeptical it was so close to home. "I don't know if this is true," said 38-year-old Montiel, who is part of the country's largest indigenous group, the Wayuu. 

When the Colombian government issued a nationwide lockdown in late April, she and her husband were advised to stay at home with their three children, but this turned out to be a disaster for the family.

Angela used to knit traditional Wayuu mochila bags but she can't sell them in the street under the current restrictions and her children are not able to engage in any education, as the family does not have access to the school materials online. As for updates, they wait for phone calls from friends or family, who might bring news. Otherwise, they're in the dark. 

"Seeing as we don't have TV, internet or anything, we don't know if it's still going on or if it will keep going, so obviously we can't go out or move around, we're in despair."

- Angela Montiel

In India they announced they would assist the vulnerable women, widows, senior citizens and disabled people for three months with direct cash transfers of 500 to 1,000 rupees ($6 to $13) due to the lockdown as a result of the pandemic. But this is highlighting even further the digital divide given these people are not likely to have an internet connection to access the payment.

One affected is Lal Bai, a 65-year-old widow living in a remote village in Rajasthan who couldn't trek the five miles into the nearest town to withdraw the government cash and had no means of accessing the government funds online, so she quickly found herself without any food left at home.

Distraught, Bai ended up on the doorstep of Ombati Prajapati, who runs a digital services shop in her village. "She was the only one who would help me."

Prajapati is among 10,000 digital entrepreneurs, who have been trained and supported by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), a New Delhi-based NGO, in rural parts of the country.

Amid the lockdown, they're helping provide essential digital services, including remote banking that allows people like Bai to withdraw cash using a mobile, biometric ATM. And they're even helping to fight misinformation. 

"It is only because of the internet that I am able to see what is happening and tell others that they should regularly wash their hands with soap, use sanitizer, wear masks,"

- Prajapati, 27.

With almost 50% of the world still unconnected there is a lot of work left to be done and we all need to work together to close the digital divide.

If you want to read more about the projects we at theunconnected.org are running to help bridge the digital divide, you can click through here.