An investigation of the Sustainability of Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) amidst Covid-19 and its impact on household income levels: lessons from Malawi, Sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND: Food security, malnutrition, and poverty are some of the challenges that most of the sub-Saharan African countries have been historically facing. With the coming of Covid-19 pandemic, the sustainability of the Village Savings and Loans Association which are formed to counter fight these challenges is questioned. AIM: This study aimed to assess factors associated with the Sustainability of VSLAs amidst Covid-19 and its impacts on households' income levels. METHODS: An online cross-sectional design was conducted from November to January 2021, targeting VSLAs members in Mzuzu. A snowball and respondent-driven sampling technique were used to recruit the needful participants using a referral approach. IBM SPSS version 23 was used to perform descriptive statistics, Chi-Square, and binary logistic regression with unstandardized Beta (ß), Odds Ratios (OR), and 95% Confidence Interval (CI) being taken into account with P-value set at 0.1, 0.05 and 0.01 significance levels. RESULTS: Our study finds that household income declined by 54% for those earnings belonged to ˂ MK5,000, as compared to 38% and 15% for medium (MK5,000 ≥ MK10,000) and higher (> MK10,000) income bands respectively. Our study shows that gender (ß = 0.437, p = 0.094), age-group (ß = 1.317, p = 0.000), education (ß = 2.181, p = 0.047), share contributions (ß = 1.035, p = 0.008), meetings (ß = 0.572, p = 0.021), occupation (ß = -0.453, p = 0.106), and frequency of meeting (ß = -0.507, p = 0.049) were positively and negatively statistically significant predictors. CONCLUSION: According to the findings of this study, households with lower income earners, which is one of the indicators of poverty, are more affected by the pandemic than their counterparts. We urge that the Malawi governments should maintain and, if they haven't already, implement programs that support low-income households, such as transfer payments, which have been shown to uplift people out of income poverty in many developing countries.

What is the Sustainability of Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) Amidst of Covid-19? Its Impact on Household Income Level and its Determining Factors-Lessons from Malawi, Sub-Saharan Africa (preprint)

Background: Food security, malnutrition and poverty are some of the challenges that most of the sub-Saharan African countries face, with the coming of Covid-19 the sustainability of Village Savings and Loans Association which are formed to counter fight these challenges is questioned. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess factors associated with the Sustainability of VSLAs amidst of Covid-19 and its impacts on households' income levels. Methods: An online cross-sectional design was conducted from November to January 2021, targeting VSLAs members in Mzuzu. A snowball and respondent-driven sampling technique was used to recruit the needful participants using a referral approach. IBM SPSS version 23 was used to perform descriptive statistics, Chi-Square, and binary logistic regression with unstandardized Beta (β), Odds Ratios (OR), and 95% Confidence Interval (CI) being taken into account with P-value set at P-value at 0.1, 0.05 and 0.01 significance levels. Results: Our study finds that household income declined by 54% for those earnings belonged to ˂ MK5,000, as compared to 38% and 15% for medium (MK5,000 ≥ MK10,000) and higher (>MK10,000) income bands respectively. Our study shows that gender (β=0.437, p=0.094), age-group (β=1.317, p=0.000), education (β=2.181, p=0.047), share contributions (β=1.035, p=0.008), and meetings (β=0.572, p=0.021), and occupation (β=-0.453, p=0.106), frequency of meeting (β=-0.507, p=0.049) were positively and negatively statistically significant predictors. Conclusion: Findings of this study shows that households with lower income earnings as one of the indicators of poverty are more affected by the pandemic than their counterparts. We recommend that the policymakers should continue and adopt, if they have not yet, programs that would help to assist low-income households, such as transfer of payments, which have proved to boost the income of the poor in many developing countries.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Preventative Practices (KAPs) Towards COVID-19 Among International Students in China.

PURPOSE: The study aimed to find out about the knowledge, attitudes, and preventative practices of COVID-19 among international students in China during the pandemic. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A cross-section survey was conducted among 300 international students from 13 different universities in Hubei province of China between March and April 2020 which relied upon convenience sampling method. RESULTS: Out of 300 respondents, 153 (51%) of the respondents were female students, of which the majority were single, undergraduate students who were doing medicine (163, 54.3%) and engineering programs (68, 22.7%). The majority of international students had an impressive knowledge on the causes, risks, and spread of COVID-19, and that they were no misconception of the pandemic 229 (76%) to 281 (98%) respectively. These students also demonstrated a markedly positive attitude towards the virus and a feeling that they were almost completely safe being in China (264, 84%). Variations were found on Knowledge scores in age group (P<0.01) and majors (P=0.025), attitude scores on major of study (P=0.015), and experience (P<0.01). Furthermore, the results revealed that all the students (300, 100%) adhered to and practiced set preventive measures against COVID-19 and that there was a positive correlation between attitudes and preventative practices (r=0.219, P<0.01). CONCLUSION: This study found that social media platform was contributing enormously towards information dissemination and Chinese universities were commended for their continuous notifications on COVID-19 which helped students to have full knowledge. This, in turn, was instrumental in helping students to form good attitudes and practices towards COVID-19.

Adoption of ICT in Learning: Perceptions from Technical College Students in Malawi (preprint)

Background: There has been a growing interest to use Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the field of education. Most countries have made strides to adopt the use of ICT in teaching and learning. A lot of studies have been made to find out about attitudes of stakeholders in education on adopting the use of ICT. Aim: Considering that Malawi has recently been promoting the skills and vocational trades, this study was aimed at finding out how students in the technical and vocational colleges perceive the use of ICT in learning. Methods: A quantitative research study was undertaken among 208 students using a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and analyses of variance were used to analyze the results using IBM SPSS version 23 Software. Findings: The study revealed that most students use ICT for recreational purposes than pedagogical. It was also revealed that there are no differences in perceptions of using ICT in learning between male and female students, although differences were noted between students coming from different locations.  Recommendation: We recommend the use of ICT in technical and vocational college as the world is changing in the manner the business is being transacted as witnessed with the impact of COVID-19. Further we recommend authorities to put more attention in the development of ICT learning resources as it has the power to drive the economy in all sectors.

Effects of government actions on safety and security perceptions of international students during COVID-19 pandemic in China (preprint)

Introduction: International students’ safety and security matters as they are migrants and foreigners belonging to a special minority group of people that need to be protected each and every time in breach of which may have diplomatic and international endeavors. This study was aimed at finding the effects of government actions in regards to safety and security perceptions of international students in China during COVID-19 Pandemic. Materials and methods: A cross- sectional design survey was conducted in March 2020 from 13 different universities in Hubei province of China. Data was collected through an online Microsoft questionnaire which was send to selected universities groups that were purposively and conveniently sampled. IBM SPSS version 24 software was used to analyses the data; Pearson correlational was performed at statistical significance put at*p<0.05; **p<0.01. Results: 300 questionnaires were received out of 392, representing a response rate of 76.5%, majority of the respondents were in age group of 20-30 86%, single 93%, undergraduate 79%, stayed 2 years above 61%, belonging to Christianity 51.7% and Islam 37%. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between social distance measures and safety and security perceptions, but there was no correlation between information dissemination and safety and security perception, lastly, the results showed that students were materially supported with their respective authorities and that the political will was good. Conclusion: The actions of the government especially through the social distance measures have proved to positively increase international students’ safety and security perceptions. Further, authorities tried to facilitate material and social support to the students. We recommend authorities to continue putting the safety and security of international students at their heart as it is demonstrated in China. 

Knowledge, attitudes and preventative practices (KAPs) towards COVID-19 among international students in China (preprint)

Introduction: Despite the world having history of fighting pandemics the coming of Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which started in Wuhan in China late last year, has had the worst devastating impacts the world has never seen before. The study aimed to find out about the knowledge, attitudes and preventative practices of COVID-19 among international students in China during the pandemic.Material and methods: A cross-section survey was conducted among 300 international students from 13 different universities in Hubei province of China between March and April 2020 which relied upon convenience sampling method. Data was collected through an online Microsoft questionnaire. The analysis of data was done by using software IBM SPSS version 23 with p-value of 0.05 which was considered as statistical significance. Descriptive analysis and multi-linear regression analysis were conducted to find association between variables.Results and discussion : Out of 300 respondents 153 (51%) of the respondents were female students, of which the majority were single, undergraduate students who were doing medicine 163 (54.3%) and engineering-programmes 68 (22.7%). The results indicated that the vast majority of international students had an impressive knowledge on the causes, risks and spread of COVID-19 and that they were no misconception of the pandemic 229 (76%) to 281 (98%) respectively. These students also demonstrated a markedly positive attitude towards the virus and a feeling that they were almost complete safe being in China 264 (84%). Variations were found on Knowledge scores in age group(P<0.01) and majors (P=0.025), attitude scores on major of study (P=0.015) and experience (P<0.01). Furthermore, the results revealed that almost all the students 300 (100%) adhered to and practiced set preventive measures against COVID-19 and that there was a positive correlation between attitudes and preventative practices (r=0.219, P <0.01).Conclusion: This study found that social media platform was contributing enormously towards information dissemination and Chinese universities were commended for their continuous notifications on COVID-19 which helped students to have full knowledge. This, in turn, was instrumental in helping students to form good attitudes and practices towards COVID-19.