Before SONAM started this initiative, nurses and midwives had expressed uncertainty about how to take care of Covid-19 patients. With the intense fear of contagion and threat to mental and psychological wellbeing served as a motivation for us to develop courses that can be reached by a large proportion of nurses and midwives. The suite of courses that SONAM has developed and continues to develop are geared towards meeting the information needs of nurses and midwives who are the frontline of the Covid-19 response. It has been great working with WCEA who through their innovative online and mobile app platforms have contributed to capacity building, especially in such uncertain times. As WCEA hits the 1 million mark, I celebrate all the nurses and midwives who have been impacted by these courses and encourage them to continue the important work they are doing of healing the world. This is a great milestone, and we look forward to expanding our reach to more than 6 million nurses and midwives on the continent. I would also like to thank NCK, JJF, WCEA and ICN for all their commitment to ensuring healthcare workers in sub-Saharan Africa have access to this vital information.

Lesotho Nurses have benefited from the online CPD platform & Mobile App as nurses are able to learn and develop their knowledge and skills. Nurses, midwives, and nursing assistants can access courses that are relevant to their area of work/departments, with the aim of improving their knowledge and skills. It has been easier for them to verify the treatments and management of the patients under their care at the time. Additionally, the CPD platform has enabled us to access various COVID-19 online courses and we have indeed been capacitated to respond to the pandemic. We are indeed grateful for the opportunity that has been provided to us.

WCEA opened up opportunities for Namibian nurses to develop and enhance their skills and knowledge through online courses. Through this platform, interactivity and network opportunities for all are generated. Namibian nurses embrace with open arms technological solutions and appreciate WCEA initiative for introducing to us this new education platform and mobile applications. The online platform will offer greater opportunities for nurses and midwives in Namibia to have access to both local and international updates. Through participation in the online courses, Namibian nurses are enabled to bridge the educational gap with regards to current health-related updates. NNA greatly appreciates this initiative and would like to thank WCEA and ICN for this and NNA shall remain forever grateful.

I am happy to share our experience working with WCEA as the Midwives Association of Zambia. It has been a very interesting journey from the time we got to know you about 3 to 4 years ago. You were consistent with your communication with us and we tried our best to put things in place so that our Midwives can have an opportunity to access the platform for professional development. The Zambian midwives are excited, and we have seen membership growth from about 800 to 1300 plus. This is a great milestone for us. Midwives are keen to learn and build their knowledge and skills needed to provide quality care to women and their babies. The CPD platform is a must especially that it is a requirement for any Midwife to earn CPD points before their practicing licenses are renewed. Thank you for affording us this chance.

WCEA availed a virtual learning platform for health workers with all the features we were looking for. For example, the platform is specifically dedicated for education of health workers, the design is user friendly, has a real time tracking system o learners, has in built feedback mechanism for improving content of the eLearning modules etc.