Volunteers join hands to educate villagers about COVID-19

Groups of youngsters across Sindh have taken it upon themselves to spread awareness aboutCOVID-19

KARACHI: While the government does what it can to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country, some youngsters have joined hands and taken it upon themselves to defeat this pandemic in various districts of Sindh.

To this end, groups of people - mainly comprising university students and private-sector employees - have volunteered to distribute soaps, disinfectants and sanitisers at the entry and exit points of different towns and villages of the province.

That’s not all - they are also educating villagers about the spread of the disease and how they should frequently wash their hands and avoid thronging crowded places to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.

In some villages, young people have also set up barriers in front of mosques to discourage religious congregations so that the virus can be contained.

Educating and helping the villagers

“We have formed a team comprising educated youngsters and have deployed them at the entry and exit point of our village. These people are responsible for stopping and checking every vehicle before allowing it to enter the village,” explained Jamal Mehmood Khuhro, a resident of Sobhodero in Larkana district. “If we see that cars have multiple people, we tell them to go back. Similarly, we are also stopping religious preachers from entering the village so that they cannot summon people to large gatherings.”

He added that rich and influential people in the village had donated money to raise funds and volunteers are utilising it in the best possible way. “We are distributing rations to the poor and daily-wage workers without the support of the government.”

As in Sobhodero, volunteers from Setharja in Khairpur district have started spraying disinfectants across the village together with distributing protective masks, completely free of charge.

"We asked tailors in our village to sew 2,000 masks and have distributed them among people," Aijaz Ali Sahito, a volunteer, told The Express Tribune. Sahito, who works as a lab technician, revealed that he had watched various YouTube videos related to the preparation of DIY face masks and showed them to the tailors, who did the job.

"For the sake of humanity, the tailors refused to charge a single penny. This shows that we all are together in the fight against coronavirus," he said. “Apart from that, we are regularly educating people, particularly children, to wash their hands frequently and avoid touching their faces.”

Setting up forums

Young volunteers from Hyderabad have also set up a platform called the Sindh Sujagi Forum. Members of the forum visit various nearby villages where they educate people about the importance of social distancing and frequent handwashing.

Muhid Azad Leghari, a young lawyer from Hyderabad, said that he and his friends initially started the awareness campaign in his village of Wanki Wasi, which is around 15 kilometres from Hyderabad. Afterwards, they expanded the campaign to other villages and small towns in Sindh.

“Since the provincial government decided to temporarily shut down all educational institutions in the province, many educated youngsters have come back to their villages to stay at home with their families, which has turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” Leghari said. “Now, these student volunteers have started a door-to-door awareness campaign to discourage people from going to mosques or attend any type of social gatherings.”

Leghari said that against their expectations, they received tremendous appreciation from villagers who showed little to no resistance and understood the message.

"Apart from the educational campaign, we have also made a list of poor, daily-wage workers and have handed it over to the elected representatives of the area to ensure the provision of ration bags and cash as promised by the government," he said.

Off social media

Professor Liaquat Mirani, the former principal of the Army Public School in Dadu, who also contested in the last general elections, has started a campaign in villages of Dokri tehsil, Larkana.

Every day, he sets out on a donkey cart, using a megaphone to spread awareness about the pandemic and the precautionary measures people should take.

"Instead of disseminating the information on social media, I decided to do some leg work and educate people about the virus myself, because many people do not have access to social media,” he said, adding that due to illiteracy and growing extremism in the province, many people had started considering the disease as a form of punishment from Allah.

“Prevention is better than cure. We can only defeat the virus with precautionary measures, therefore, I tell people that instead of panicking, they should start washing their hands more frequently and practise social distancing,” he concluded.