CRI’s Young Bangla raises awareness among coronavirus volunteers

Young Bangla with its nationwide network took steps to create awareness among volunteers as they are still out on the streets to serve their communities while everyone needs to ‘stay home and stay safe’ during the coronavirus epidemic.

Youths of Young Bangla, who were selected from across the country by the Centre for Research and Information, or CRI, based on their activities that changed the lives of their communities, came up with their humanitarian response during the outbreak.

The volunteers offer food to the poor and daily-wage earners at a time when all the activities around the country came to halt due to the shutdown.

They also campaigned for social distancing when they found it is necessary to avoid community transmission using the means like microphone and painting circles of distance in front of the shops and other public places.

Since their voluntary involvement increases their chance of being affected with the virus, Young Bangla’s secretariat CRI has organised three bridging webinars among 200 community youth leaders and health and wellbeing practitioners. Participating youths in those sessions have received guidelines and briefs on ‘Volunteerism and Safety in Corona days’ recently.

Prof Mamun Al Mahtab (Shwapnil), chairman of the Liver Department at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, took part in the third webinar. Mahtab, a medical scientist who co-invented hepatitis-B drug Nasvac, provided youths with the guidelines and answered their queries. “As the virus emerged as a pandemic all across the world, you, volunteers serving humanity, are doing a great job. But you must maintain a set of hygiene rules since you are out to the street,” he said.

“After you come home, you should keep the shoes outside, if possible. Otherwise, you should clean it properly before placing it inside the home. You can keep a box to isolate the wallet, watches, and all other stuff you carry outside since you never know what might carry the virus. Wipe the mobile phone with a rag soaked in liquid soap,” he added.

“Not everyone needs to use a surgical mask since it is neither available nor affordable. What you can do is use two or three-layered masks,” Mahtab said of the use of masks. While all the cautionary words from every corner of the world are about the outbreak of coronavirus, some other aspects of hygiene are often overlooked and that matters most to the volunteers.

Reflecting on the point, he said, “Be very careful about dehydration and heat-stroke since it is the summertime and the hot sun may sap away your energy. Carry a bottle of water and make sure that you don’t drink water from any unreliable sources since they might cause liver diseases and other complications. In case you have to take lunch at restaurants, be sure that the food is freshly cooked and hot.”

Apart from hygiene, he also advised youths to make their community aware of fake news regarding the coronavirus, which in his view is a global issue. To substantiate his argument, Mahtab said: “Australia has made an app to filter out fake news or rumour. It frustrates me when I see people spread rumours by faking the logos of global organisations like the World Health Organization. Why don’t people just visit the official website of WHO and check it out?"

About the situation of the epidemic in Bangladesh, he said, “When the entire world is scared of it, cities around the planet are under lockdown, the premiers or their spouses in the most developed countries are diagnosed with this deadly virus, you cannot say that Bangladesh is not doing enough or you cannot say that it shattered Bangladesh once you take the global scale into account. When someone says why the country did not act more promptly, I say they hardly have any idea about the setting up and running a PCR lab that is neither so easy nor so affordable.”

Young Bangla develops a guideline based on these consultations as a draft to be shared with more experts and relevant agencies.

Young Bangla in its first webinar emphasised the 'stay home' message and oriented the network about the use of ICT tools to raise awareness among the community. The Young Bangla secretariat also highlighted the issue of accessing right information and shared sources with the webinar participants.

In the second webinar, Dr Md Ashraf Uddin Ahmed, resident physician of BIRDEM, Md Jahidul Hasan, clinical pharmacist of Square Hospital, and Mohammd Habibur Rahman, national technical adviser for One Health Training and Outreach at ECTAD-FAO, Bangladesh, joined as experts to answer the questions and concerns of the Young Bangla network.