A young Van Gujjar man is COVID + and as a result her 6 month old girl and wife have been quarantined along with the family. Vineeta( name changed), at the age of 28 died due to ignorance in the communities on menstrual issues and a severe lack of health resources. There are many like her who die every year due to unavailability, affordability and lack of access to healthcare facilities.
As COVID-19 pandemic reached the forest dwelling pastoralist and nomadic communities 4 days ago there has been an immediate response from the administration. The lockdown protocols have stipulated a set of uniform practices for citizen habitations across - urban, rural or forest settings. The nomadic and pastoralist communities survive by earning on a daily basis - 1. By selling milk (a daily produce) and 2. Offering daily wages as well. The challenge towards practicing pastoralism, sustaining livelihood and health is rising with every passing day.
Under the current COVID scenario these challenges have amplified as missing institutional support, poor awareness, low levels of literacy are posing serious challenges. The COVID has severely disrupted the limited abilities of community towards health concerns.
We have been continuously assessing the impact and mitigation steps for our Community. We have been initiating steps to build community awareness and resistance for some time now. Below is a brief on what has happened.
Actions March - April 2020
1. Awareness sessions with community women and children on the impact
on Health in the current situation.
2. Sharing posters and videos on sanitation and hygiene measures with community.
3. Be in consistent communication with community through our youth and
women engagement to bust fake messages and media around the COVID
situation. This has been one of the focussed engagements for us.
4. Share and work towards effective dissemination of relief from government.
5. Develop a Community Risk Reduction and Response Plan in relation to
health and livelihoods (pastoral nature of community may be several
impeded).
6. Facilitate youth to engage children.
Outcomes March - April 2020
1. Pre-emptive steps by the community to identify people with travel histories and coordinate with government authorities towards timely quarantine and diagnosis.
2. Coordinate with community to avail rations and support as per government mandated announcements.
3. Consistent health tracking by community youth and leaders at individual and household level.
4. Follow guidelines on awareness about sanitation and hygiene.
5. Youth engaged with children to support learning at Home.
In order to pursue and strengthen our work we seek your support for
Provisioning of health (adequate food support), hygiene and sanitation resources during COVID and post COVID scenarios for the community with focus on - Women, Adolescent girls and Children.
Conducting training and awareness sessions. Use technology to support community resistance and response in situations similar to COVID in current and coming times.
Set up a Community owned learning centre for the women and children.
Develop youth and women as the primary responders (ASHA etc) to health issues and to raise awareness (COVID-19) in wider communities.
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Please visit the Milaap link for more details -
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