The UNFPA East and Southern Africa Regional Office through its flagship programme for youth, Safeguard Young People (SYP), as part of the response to COVID-19 engaged young people in the region to find out how they were coping with the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The #YouthandCOVID19 project was launched in May with the aim of sharing best practices among the youth and to expose them to the many interventions and responses to COVID-19 that UNFPA and its partners have put in place during this time. A call to action was shared via the SYP social media platforms and among the youth on the programme's database whereby young people were invited to share their experiences through documentation of their own diaries.

The young people were given guiding questions, which were skillfully crafted to ensure that the diaries covered access too sexual and reproductive health services and commodities, mental health, coping strategies and their hopes for the future, among others.

The diaries are engaging and representative of how the young person in Africa has been dealing with the advent of a pandemic that caught the world by surprise. If there's anything to take away from this series it should be the tips and advice that these young people share with us.