A leading civil society organization, Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) has initiated a short-term project in two districts of Karachi (East and Malir) covering 08 UCs to create awareness about Coronavirus prevention among the masses, a statement said.
The project named “Provision of Hand washing Facilities and Community Awareness on COVID-19” is initiated in the selected union councils of Karachi’s two districts, which are the hotspots regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. The UCs included UC-10: Pehlwan Goth, UC-6 Gillani Railways, UC-8 Jamali Colony, UC-12 Gulzar-e-Hijri, UC-13 Safooraa, UC-14 Faisal Cantonment, UC-2 Manzoor Colony & UC-5 Gadap Town.
The project is designed to facilitate the government led Panahgahs, Langars, healthcare, quarantine facilities and marketplaces with hand washing facilities, provision of hygiene kits, and to create awareness of diverse communities on prevention and protection from COVID-19 through the distribution of Information, Communication Technology (ICT) kits and community mobilization campaigns.
Funded by Water Aid the project also envisages activities under the guidance of NDMA, PDMA and Local Government Departments like the installation of 09 hand-washing booths in panahgahs, selected public hospitals including the Trauma Centre in Civil Hospital and other public places/buildings identified by government partners in coordination meetings in Karachi. Keeping the WASH guidelines and realising the importance of this component. Furthermore, the project recognises that the daily wagers suffer the most on account of the loss of jobs during any emergency crisis.
To this end, the NGO will recruit and capacitate 16 people for two months for awareness raising in 08 UCs of Karachi East and Malir which are hotspots of Covid 19 cases and marked as red zones.
While service delivery is an important factor of any project; awareness raising is also pertinent to address prevention and rehabilitation to those who remain unaware of the dangerously spreading COVID-19 and people who need psycho-social support as the lockdown continues and is expected to continue further.
Hence, the SPO will run an awareness-raising campaign to ‘Stay Home – Stop Spread of COVID-19- return to normalcy soon’ through cable TV networks in 08 UCs of Karachi East and Malir and installation of streamers, billboards in the area.
SPO will construct a permanent Public Toilet in any public space suggested by district administration or PDMA.
Effective disaster response requires mutual trust and coordination of efforts. However, considering the fact of increasing cases of COVID-19 in Karachi, SPO looks forward to a positive and prompt response in enabling us to start our response at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the Regional Head of SPO Mr. Pirbhu Satyani held a meeting with the Additional Deputy Commissioner, of Karachi District East Arfan Mirwai Baloch, the Deputy Director of PDMA and the Focal Person of NGOs in PDMA Mr. Altaf Qureshi and the administration of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Director Dr Ruby Institute of Skin Diseases, Incharge of Police surgeon Medico-legal Dr. Karar Abbasi, Trauma Center Karachi Civil Hospital where they were briefed about project activities and they ensured their support and cooperation for effective implementation of the project.
