ZCZC
BSS-O4
CORONA-VILLAGERS-MOTIVATION (with picture)
Five lakh villagers brought under anti-virus awareness campaign in Rajshahi
By Dr Aynal Haque
RAJSHAHI, April 18, 2020 (BSS) – Around five lakh marginalized population were brought under various motivational and awareness campaigns to fight coronavirus (COVID-19) spread in the region.
Litfor Haider Rashid, Chairman of Tanore Upazila Parishad, said the villagers were given various protective gears including 10,000 facemasks, 13,200 leaflets, 300 hand sanitizers and 42 hand washing devices.
Besides, health service providers were given seven personal protective equipment (PPE), 800 gloves, 2,700 facemasks, 148 hand sanitizers and 40 hand washing devices so that they can deliver services to the targeted populations effectively through protecting them.
The supports were given as emergency works to respond COVID-19 on behalf of two development projects styled ‘Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)’ and ‘Public Health Improvement Initiative Rajshahi (PHIIR).
DASCOH Foundation has been implementing the IWRM project with financial support of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation- SDC while the PHIIR with funding of Swiss Red Cross.
The IWRM project is being implemented in drought affected 39 Union Parishads and three Pourasavas in Rajshahi, Chapainawabgonj and Naogaon districts since 2015.
On the other hand, PHIIR project is being implemented in 110 community clinics, 42 Union Health and Family Welfare Centres and five Upazila Health Complexes in Rajshahi and Naogaon districts with the main thrust of improving health status at primary health care and mother, neonatal and child health.
“We have 1,272 volunteers who are disseminating ideas among the community people on how to use the protective gears effectively besides maintaining social and physical distancing,” said Jahangir Alam Khan, Coordinator of IWRM project, adding the community people are also learning about how to wash hands and follow other health related guidelines to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The volunteers are disseminating the messages in all the 1,272 communities explaining how the coronavirus spreads, how people can protect themselves and their families from its infection and how they can understand symptoms of the disease and seek healthcare.
As a whole, they are disseminating awareness messages on coronavirus among the community people so that they can protect themselves from the invisible enemy, Jahangir Khan added.
Besides, 1,200 households were given 10 kilograms of rice, two kilograms of potato, one kilogram of pulse, one kilogram of salt, one kilogram of edible oil and soap and a mask each with financial support of City Capital aimed at mitigating their hardship being caused by the pandemic.
Around eighty percent of the IWRM project covering 2.80 lakh populations both male and female is dependent on selling labour to the agricultural farming fields for their livelihood. Basically, they are adjudged as the frontline workforce to various farming activities including seedling transplantation of paddy and its nursing and harvesting.
At this pandemic situation, emphasis has been given on ensuring their health right protection as their contribution to the region’s agricultural improvement is remarkable.
Akramul Haque, Chief Executive Officer of DASCOH Foundation, told BSS that the awareness campaign is being conducted for protecting the marginalized populations from the virus infection in addition to the scheduled works of the projects.
BSS/SPL/AH/MMA/1127hrs