Community movement is nothing but the accumulated response to any social issues through the community people. It is divided into four segments like individual, family, kinship and community. Each and every segment have distinct role towards alarming epidemiological issues COVID-19. The article’s tries to sketch the role and responsibilities of each and every segment of community movement to prevent COVID-19.
Introduction
COVID-19 is nothing but the name of dangerous threat of death in the world. 207 973 people have already been died in 213 countries[1]. Bangladesh has been facing a devastating situation for COVID-19 from the last 08 March, 2020 to till date. Total 168 people have died for the virus among the 7667 identified cases within the last 8 weeks (8th week is not completed yet). The infection rate is increasing in every moment.
Figure 1 : Week wise confirmed cases
Government has warned that the virus will be spread in the whole country and community infection has been started[2]. The world famous scientists are constantly working to fight with the virus but they have been failing to stop the caravan of death in the world. Social scientists are also producing scientific write-ups to make policy in which respective country can take proper initiatives to tackle the harsh social breakdown. But no initiatives are working properly to fight against COVID-19. As a student of Anthropology, the researcher has been thinking to come up with a pragmatic measure to cope up with the natural pandemic of COVID-19. The researcher found that, Jayaprakash Muliyil is one of India’s foremost epidemiologists, said about the most acceptable way to fight against COVID-19. He talked that Community participation—not lockdowns—is key to fighting coronavirus in India[3].The researcher agrees with the epidemiologist. The researcher think that only behavior change can make difference to fight against COVID-19. Now, it is a big question’s how can we change behavior of people? The answer is only community movement can help to change the behavior of mass people. The researcher think that community movement should ensure through the changing behavior of the following levels of any community of the world.
Sensitization of Individual and Family
This is the most important and first step in changing behavior. The will of the individual is sufficient to change the behavior of the person. Yet it is important to follow the overall norms of society and the state. In all religions, we are told to abide by religious discipline to prevent the Corona virus. That is, “cleanliness is part of the faith.”Cleanliness is the main tool for the prevention of corona virus. Corona virus is infectious. The person spreads the virus through sneezing, cough, colds and breathing. When a healthy person comes in contact with an injured person within 3-5 feet, the risk of panic is overwhelming. If the victim is holding something like door handle or new, locks, water bottle / glass, lift button, stair handle, ATM booth button, water faucet, commodity flask / sitter, paper, pen, pencil, bag, bag, money, money, etc. And then after touching a healthy person, the person can be infected. If a healthy person uses all the substances used by the infected person, that person can be infected. This is why changing the behavior of the affected person is very important. The victim must be kept separate from other family members. The affected person must be prepared to change all his / her previous habits / behaviors and follow the advice of a specialist physician. This condition is called isolation / dissociation in medical science. Those who were or remain in contact with the affected person should be kept for 7 days. The distance from one person to another will always be 3 feet. No one will be able to touch anyone or use any of the materials used, and must follow the advice of a specialist physician. This condition is called quarantine in the language of medical science. It is important to assure some rights of the individual while in the quarantine. Quarantine’s obligations are as per the Siracusa policy-1984 of the United Nation are as follows:
- All those who have the basic needs of the disease will have to make all the prevention.
- There should be ample opportunity for communication with loved ones and caregivers.
- Workplace, job, as well as financial loss should be taken into account, there should be compensation system.
- Everyone should have equal opportunity in all aspects of social status.
- Quarantine must be seen as necessary for society and the people.
- It should be done to prevent the transmission of disease.
The elderly of the family have to take responsibility for changing individual and family behavior. They will monitor the daily behavior of all members of their family. It is important to remember that if an attack occurs, everyone in the family will be in danger. It is important to follow the World Health Organization’s specific policies in this regard.
- Stay separate from other family members.
- Stay in a separate room with light and air. If possible, stay at least 5 feet away from others. Use separate beds at night.
- Use a separate bathroom, toilet. If it is not possible to reduce the number of places you have to use with others and arrange for adequate lighting in those places.
- Breastfeeding mothers can breastfeed their baby. But before approaching the baby, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and use a mask.
- Use a mask when staying in the same room with other members of the house, especially if you need to get within 5 meters / 5 feet or when you need to get out of the house when needed.
- When exposed to colds, coughs, vomiting, etc., immediately remove the mask and use a new mask. After using the mask, cover the lid with dirt and rinse with soapy water.
- Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds and use hand sanitizer if necessary.
- After soap-water use, dry your hands with tissue. If there is no tissue, just use a towel / towel to wipe the hands and replace them when wet.
- Do not touch eyes, nose, face with unforgiving hands.
- Adhere to cough etiquette. Wrap tissue paper / medical mask / cloth mask / arm during coughing
- Cover your face and nose and clean your hands according to the above rules.
- Do not share personal items with anyone else.
In both isolation and quarantine, it is best to remain engrossed in the prayer of the Great God and Creator. For this reason, government-declared holidays should force all the family members to maintain social distance. Social distance is the home away from all kinds of public meetings[4].
Kinship[5]sensitization: It is the culturally defined relationships between individuals who are commonly thought of as having family ties. All societies use kinship as a basis for forming social groups and for classifying people. All the kin groups’ leaders should take responsibility to aware their ken members about COVID-19 as early as possible. They should implement the all government’s rules, regulations, prescriptions immediately, in which all kin members are ready to obey the health instructions regarding COVID-19.
Community Sensitization
It is the most important part to fight against COVID -19. The change in group behavior refers to the behavior of the victim and his / her family to other people in different neighborhoods. In this case, the head of each locality/ counselor of the local governments have to take responsibility for changing the behavior of all the people of his/her locality. People of all sectors of the community should come forward to extend their hands in this regard in which they can fulfil the minimum basic needs of community people. We can do it through the following comprehensive efforts.
Community Support Group (CSG) will be a key tool to fight against COVID-19 in the community. This group will be formed through one Diploma Doctor, two Nurses (one male and one female), one Counselor, and three aid workers (two males and one females). All staffs of community clinic and Community Family Care Center will be deployed to form this CSG. This CSG will be responsible for the following duties and responsibilities but not limited
- To search the suspected persons who are suffering for COVID-19 symptoms
- To refer the general patients to general health care center
- To refer the suspected COVID -19 people for quarantine and isolation
- To identify the COVID-19 patients
- To refer the COVID-19 patients immediately
- To follow-up the cure, quarantine and isolation completed people
- To counsel the family members of suspected COVID-19 patients
- To assist to get minimum all basic needs of the family from local government representatives
- To identify the disadvantage people of the community
- To assist to get minimum all basic needs of the disadvantage family from local government representatives
- To distribute the Behavior Change Communication (BCC) materials among the community
Community Volunteer Group (CVG): We need to form a Community Volunteer Group. It is essential to make the community people aware against COVID-19. This group will solely responsible to sensitize community people through Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials. From the above data it is indicating that males are most affected group. To control movement of males’ member of the community, this CVG will play a key role in the community gate. A representative of each and every family will allow to go out of the community in response to the basic needs of the family. Community leaders of each and every community both in the town and village should extends their hands to form the CSG and CVG as early as possible with the help of local government’s representatives. The local government’s representatives will need to take the responsibility to provide IEC materials as well as all kinds of logistic support to the members of CVG. The chief of local government representatives will act as a facilitator, monitor and supportive supervisor to accomplish the duties and responsibility of CVG and CSG. Experiences of the cured patients will need to document as early as possible. The respective local government should take initiatives to explore the illness episode of these patients among the community people in which they can boost up themselves to fight against COVID-19[6].
Ensuring food-goods and medicine of community people: It is important to count total family as well as family members of each and every community. After counting all family in the community we need to identify the types of household of the community such as
- Hand-to-mouth households: The household which runs through hand-to -mouth.
- Needy households: The household which is needy but ability to run independently with some savings more than one months. The income source is totally stopped due to COVID-19.
- Well off households: The household which is well of and ability to run independently with savings more than three months. The income source is totally stopped due to COVID-19.
- Rich Households: The household which is rich and the house owner is the employee of Government or non-government organization.
- Wealthy households: The household which is wealthy and ability to donation for the wellbeing of the community.
Now, we need to form a Community Aid Bank. The bank will be governed by the community people with the direct facilitation of local government representatives. The duties and responsibilities of the bank will
- To make a data base of the community households based on voter lists.
- To prepare a need assessment of the community
- To introduce barter economic system (An example of a barter exchange may involve swapping a bag of nuts for some fruit or meat) among the community
- To collect fund/aid/relief from the local government
- To collect fund/aid/relief from the wealthy households of the community
- To distribute the fund/aid/relief equally among the households based on needs
- To supply essentials medicine based on needs through exchange of money
[1]WHO, “Coronavirus,” Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic, April 30, 2020, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019.
[2]Institute of Epidemiology Research (IEDCR) Disease Control and, “করোনা ইনফো,” accessed April 17, 2020, http://www.corona.gov.bd/.
[3]Arunabh Saikia, “Community Participation—Not Lockdowns—Is Key to Fighting Coronavirus in India,” Quartz India, March 24, 2020, https://qz.com/india/1824059/india-shouldnt-respond-to-coronavirus-with-only-lockdowns/.
[4]Md Nasir Uddin, “আচরণ পরিবর্তন: করোনা প্রতিরোধের একমাত্র উপায়,” March 28, 2020, https://www.deshsangbad.com/details.php?id=99624.
[5]“The Nature of Kinship: Overview,” accessed April 17, 2020, https://www2.palomar.edu/anthro/kinship/kinship_1.htm.
[6]Maksuda Khatun, “A Tool to Fight against COVID-19,” accessed April 17, 2020, https://en.deshsangbad.com/details.php?id=573.
