Abstract: This study explores gendered cultural preventive beliefs, values, and norms practiced among elderly populations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kakamega County, Kenya, focusing on Malava and Matungu sub-counties, which have a high concentration of older persons. Guided by cultural resilience and gendered health behavior theories, the study employed a cross-sectional design, surveying 363 elderly respondents aged 60 years and above, complemented by qualitative narratives and desk review of relevant literature. Findings reveal that the elderly drew upon indigenous healing systems, moralized hygiene, and faith-based practices to interpret and respond to the pandemic. Women mobilized care-centered ethics through domestic hygiene, herbal remedies, and intergenerational health mentorship, while men often embodied stoic and autonomous dispositions reflecting hegemonic masculinity. Rituals such as prayers, ancestral offerings, and symbolic purification were adapted to promote both spiritual reassurance and collective resilience. The study concludes that COVID-19 responses among the elderly were culturally mediated, reflecting dynamic adaptation rather than static tradition. Gendered cultural logics provided psychosocial coping and reinforced communal solidarity. Recognizing such indigenous epistemologies within public health systems can enhance trust, sustainability, and local ownership of health interventions. The findings underscore the need for culturally grounded and gender-sensitive approaches to pandemic preparedness and health communication.

Abstract: The study focused on assessing the impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) through Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) modes in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. This study performed a systematic literature review by analyzing articles published between 2020 and 2023 using VOSviewer (version 1.6.18), MS Excel, SPSS, and the PRISMA 2020 statement. The result shows that the research began in 2020 with 105(8%) articles and increased to 480(35%) articles by 2021, in year 2022 a remarkable increase occurred to 622 (46%) publications. The publication trend declined from 46% in the year 2022 to 11% in the year 2023, this might be due to the decrease of pandemic infections. The study includes only the review of the research articles published from 2020 to 2023 and indexed in the Scopus database. The study has explored the impacts of ML and DL models in combating COVID-19 pandemic; that encompasses a rapid and adaptive response to the urgent needs of the pandemic, the discovery of disease and treatment. The study helps society to improve efficiency, enhanced convenience, and innovative solutions across various sectors, such as the ability to react to health emergencies, examine the healthcare and disease management methods. The study provides a remarkable contribution of AI in addressing the Covid-19 pandemic in work a work place and it has been used to monitor and manage the pandemic on a global scale. In addition, the study contributes to understanding the recent growth statistics of global publications that address COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract: This study is entitled “The Social and economic impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on private higher education in Rwanda.” The purpose of this study is to identify the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on private higher learning institutions in Rwanda. The researchers reviewed the related literature from physical and online documents. This research employed descriptive research design using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The research adopted purposive sampling technique to determine a sample size of 437 respondents ranged from Students, Staff, and Senior Managers from 26 private HLIs in Rwanda. Data was collected through questionnaire, documentation, and interviews. Primary data were analyzed using SPSS. As results of this study, almost 90% of respondents confirmed that COVID-19 affected the enrolment numbers for both international and local students. Some HLIs, especially local-based ones, reported that this impact would continuously have negative financial consequences over the next 3 to five years. At almost all HLIs, COVID-19 affected teaching and learning activities where 91% of the respondents reported that classroom teaching had been replaced by remote teaching and learning. 100% of HLIs also reported that COVID-19 had affected the planning to carry out exams and it has had an impact on international students and staff mobility at 99% of participating HLIs. As a major recommendation, HLIs should have strategies in place to control future pandemic rather than considering the COVID-19 pandemic as a once-in-a-lifetime crisis.

Abstract: The Covid-19 pandemic has caused probably the most significant world-wide disruptions in all sectors of the economy in human history. This study prescribes a Zimbabwe state university where little has been done to explore what can be done to prepare the institution to have students continue learning in the face of any threat similar to Covid-19. The study provides snippets of lecturers’ and students’ reflections on their experiences with teaching and learning during the Covid-19 era. Utilising a qualitative approach that employed face-to-face semi structured interviews, data was solicited from 10 lecturers and 20 students. Data was thematically analysed. Both positive aspects and negative outcomes of teaching and learning during the covid crisis were recorded, and from these outcomes, lessons which will help the university systems withstand future emergencies and crises were drawn. These lessons are the novelty and contribution of the study. Key among the lessons were that the institution: continues mobilizing resources to build and strengthen support for teaching-learning, strengthen the registration process, develop a system for online examinations, lobby government to subsidise cost of data bundles, and increase connectivity to remote parts as well as offer online counselling services for students and lecturers.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the challenges associated with TV classroom sessions that were done during the pandemic disease of Covid-19 phase one in Tanzania primary schools. The study was guided by the main objective of assessing effectiveness of TV classroom session in Teaching. Sample size of this study were teachers, parents and students from four primary schools. Sample was determined and reached based on the nature of the study wherein probability and purposive sampling were used to get the sample of the study. The study found that there was lack of clear strategies in getting the feedback during and after lessons. Secondly, teachers lacked assessment strategies to assess students who attended the lesson while the parents did not participate in supervising their children’s learning through TV sessions that were run during the pandemic. The following were suggestions made in response to the findings of the study; there is need for education stakeholders to find out the best ways that can be used to get feedback on sessions conducted through online programs including TV classroom sessions. Teaching and learning process require formative and summative assessment, hence there is need to carry out further research that will help to understand ways that will be used to assess learners in emergency situation. Involvement of parents on ways of teaching children through TV need to be considered to get their views and suggestion how the sessions could be productive.

Abstract: Higher Education institutions are considered the epitome of Knowledge where solutions for the Country’s problems are generated and where inventions, innovations and new ideas are gotten through research. With the coming of covid-19, it is evident that there is a surge of uncertainties pervading all areas of higher learning institutions. This touches on modes of learning, unpredictable financial conditions, student welfare and challenged enrollment. This literature review aimed to find out challenges catalyzing inclusion and access to education in Higher education institutions in Kenya. It further focused on suggested remedies in line with catalyzing change for inclusion and access to higher education during the Covid-19 era. After applying the concept map to the data from the selected studies, five challenges associated with influencing inclusion and access to higher education were identified: Technology, student/learner, Instructor, Financial and Curriculum design. The study revealed that higher institutions are shifting to remote access (virtual platforms), are more inclusive and more accessible to more student population despite being challenged with limitation of resources, uncertainty in enrollment, issues of advising and counseling students, inexperience of staff on the use of learning management systems and unpredictable financial conditions.The study offers suggestions on making education more inclusive and accessible in terms of recognition of interdependence of institutions in public space, awareness of complexity of teachers’ work and community lead learning, digital connectivity and online platform, access to information, affordable internet, reliable connectivity and other ways of protecting the School social space as education is transformed.

Abstract: This conceptual study introduces the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic as a global burden that has disrupted peoples’ quality of life. The Kenyan government confirmed the first case of COVID-19 pandemic on 14th March, 2020, after the novel corona virus disease. One of the containment strategies put in place by the Kenyan government was the suspension of all learning activities and home confinement for all school going children and university students. The aim of this study was to find out the effects of the contextual concerns of covid-19 pandemic on the university students’ mental in Kenya. The review found out that the public health containment measures led to the closure of universities, which resulted to virtual learning, virtual graduation, loss of jobs as some companies shut down, movement to rural areas, lack of supplies, isolation, pornography, concerns on one’s own health and the health of loved ones, eating and sleeping disorders, all study levels and gender, knowledge of infected person, information technology exacerbated the situation of the students, Covid-19 contributed to general poor health and that vulnerable university students may have been worse hit. All these culminated into mental health issues as depression, anxiety, stress, sleep and eating disorder and loneliness. The study recommended that apart from the student counsellors, the universities also ought to engage the services of psychotherapists and psychiatrists where applicable in the fight against mental health related concerns among the students during COVID-19 pandemic.

The general objective of the study was to assess the economic impact of COVID-19 to the growth of hotel industry in Rwanda. This study was guided by the following specific objectives: to assess the impact of COVID-19 to the employees’ welfare, to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the development and to identify the impact of COVID-19 to the stakeholders at Radisson Blu Hotels and Convention Center. This research was descriptive. The total population was 150 people and the sample size was 60 respondents. The research used universal sampling technique for choosing the respondents. The main findings for first objective revealed that 62.8% of the respondents agreed that COVID-19 has caused the management to reduce the salaries and wages of employees. Also, 44.2% strongly agreed and 55.8% agreed that COVID-19 has decreased the employees’ welfare. For the second objective, 41.9% of respondents strongly agreed and 58.1% agreed that COVID-19 affected the development by decreasing hotel occupancy rate, whereas 32.6% strongly agreed and 67.4% agreed that COVID19 reduced the number of customers reflecting the reduction of revenues. On the last objective, 30.2% strongly agreed and 69.8% agreed that COVID-19 led to reduce the number of suppliers. So COVID-19 has affected negatively the growth of hotel sector. The hotels should look at different strategies that can help them to sort out the problems caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract: This study aims to explore lecturers’ and students’ experiences on the innovative use of WhatsApp in the teaching and learning of Academic Communication Skills course during the lockdown period. Covid-19 has brought new challenges to world’s economies, social livelihoods and education. Following recommendations from Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development (MHTEISTD) in Zimbabwe, lecturers and students at Women’s University in Africa (WUA) Zimbabwe had to adopt a suitable online platform in place of face-toface lectures, thus creating Montessori lecture rooms at convenient locations for the participants. This study adopts a qualitative approach which is interpretive in nature. The study is hinged on Vygotsky’s (1978) Social Cultural Theory and McCroskey’s (2006) Instructional Communication Model. Five students and three lecturers were purposively sampled to understand their experiences in the innovative use of WhatsApp. Data from interviews and documents were analysed using the inductive thematic analysis to reveal the phenomenon under study. Major findings of this study revealed that lecturers and the majority of the students were fully supportive of the initiative to receive and conduct lectures online. WhatsApp data was much cheaper. The study recommends that students and lecturers may learn new skills on WhatsApp. Ensuing studies may compare blending WhatsApp lecture format with conventional lectures.

Abstract: Throughout the life cycle, people have specific gender needs which require consideration during times of crisis. Such gendered needs exist regardless of whether people are affected directly or indirectly by Social distancing and isolation caused by COVID 19 pandemic. Reproductive-age girls and women are more likely to live in deprived households than men and boys do. Women are often overrepresented in informal-sector occupations which are especially vulnerable in times of economic instability and are often poorly protected by social security systems. Social distancing and isolation policies have repercussions not just about the economy but also about the distribution and strength of unpaid medical jobs which is usually undertaken by women and girls. COVID-19 continues to have a strong impact on women already confronted with food safety challenges before the pandemic. Globally, women are poorer than men and have a less stable place in the labor market. As the governments struggle to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, social safety nets initiatives have been implemented to cushion the vulnerable person including women and girls. The economic assistance being offered has not put gender aspect into account. Considering that the COVID-19 crisis affects men and women in various ways, gender must be taken into account in the steps to address it. This paper seeks to examine the impacts of a lack of gender-responsive social safety nets during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendation for decisive implementation of gender-responsive social safety nets were made.