PRESS RELEASE: COVID-19: How to include marginalized and vulnerable people in risk communication and community engagement

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https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/03/...

Marginalized people become even more vulnerable in emergencies. This is due to factors such as their lack of access to effective surveillance and early-warning systems, and health services. The COVID-19 outbreak is predicted to have significant impacts on various sectors.

The development of this guide was led by UN Women and Translators without Borders on behalf of the Risk Communication and Community Engagement Working Group on COVID-19 Preparedness and Response in Asia and the Pacific, co-chaired by WHO, IFRC and OCHA.

Communication and Engagement actions for Children:

- Advocate to ensure that government and other stakeholders prioritize the information and communication needs of children and adolescents.

- Consult children and adolescents, including unaccompanied and separated children, to understand their concerns, fears and needs.

- Design information and communication materials in a childfriendly manner Provide information about psychosocial issues, as well as general health and hygiene. 

- Provide parents with skills to handle their own anxieties and help manage those in their children Advocate for family-friendly workplace policies so that parents can take better care of their children.

- Promote fun activities that parents and children can do together to reduce anxieties and tension.

- Advocate for counselling and support services for those affected. Consider different needs based on gender, context and marginalized communities.

Communication and Engagement actions for Persons with Disabilities

- Ensure active outreach to collect feedback from persons with disabilities.

- Disseminate information that uses clear and simple language.

- Provide information in accessible formats, like braille, large print.

- Offer multiple forms of communication, such as text captioning or signed videos, text captioning for hearing impaired, online materials for people who use assistive technology. Involve organizations of persons with disabilities in consultation and decision making.

- Provide tailored approach to meet individual needs, work with personal carers and other social support networks.

Communication and Engagement actions for Women and Girls

- Ensure that community engagement teams are genderbalanced and promote women’s leadership within these.

- Provide specific advice for people - usually women - who care for children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups in quarantine, and who may not be able to avoid close contact.

- Design online and in-person surveys and other engagement activities so that women in unpaid care work can participate.

- Take into account provisions for childcare, transport, and safety for any in-person community engagement activities.

- Ensure frontline medical personnel are genderbalanced and health facilities are culturally and gender sensitive.
 

Communication and Engagement actions for Pregnant Women

- Develop education materials for pregnant women on basic hygiene practices, infection precautions, and how and where to seek care based on their questions and concerns.

- Translate these materials into local languages and adapt to local context.

Communication and Engagement actions for People living with HIV

- Utilise established community systems to facilitate communication with people living with HIV, including utilising informal systems to avoid treatment disruptions.

- Ensure access to information on specific needs based on their feedback, including up to date information regarding where and how to access ARVs.

- Develop QandAs/FAQs in consultation with the people living with HIV community that respond to their specific vulnerabilities and concerns.

- Where possible, provide multi-month prescriptions to ensure that people living with HIV are able to have a few month’s supply of ARV.

- Suggest that people living with HIV keep a supply of  non-perishable food in order that they are able to take their medication.

- Provide psycho-social support to people living with HIV who may already feel anxious, stigmatised and vulnerable.

 

Communication and Engagement actions for Gender Based Violence

-Update GBV referral pathways to reflect primary and secondary health care facilities.

- Inform key communities and service providers about the updated pathways.

- Ensure that GBV risk-mitigation measures are in place in quarantine facilities and evacuation processes.

- Reinforce support and surge capacities to other sectors in addition to the health response. For example, reinforce staff for emergency response hotlines and in the safety and security sectors.

- Circulate PSEA Codes of Conduct and other safeguarding measures and remind staff of the need to comply with them.

 

Communication and Engagement actions for Refugees and Migrants

- Support the translation and dissemination of WHO and ministry of health advisories and public health information on COVID-19 and its prevention into preferred languages of refugees and migrants.

- Disseminate this information through efficient channels including NGOs, refugee or migrant volunteers and respective communities. Advocate for inclusion and non-discriminatory access of refugees and migrants to public health services. Include refugees and migrants in all national, provincial and local contingency, prevention and response plans and interventions.

- Partner with refugee and migrant community network to monitor risks associated with human mobility in affected areas.

- Tailor all activities to the context, adjusting for community perceptions, beliefs and practices.

- Diversify communication tools and format, and simplify messages; ensuring to test messages with target group. Use continued feedback to adapt messages to the evolving situation.
 

Communication and Engagement actions for Elderly

- Tailor messages and make them actionable for particular living conditions (including assisted living facilities), and health status.

- Engage the elderly to address their specific feedback.

- Develop specific messages to explain the risk for elderly and how to care for them, especially in homecare.

- Target family members, health care providers and caregivers

Communication and Engagement actions for People living in existing humanitarian emergencies

- Understand particular needs, preferred communication channels, preferred languages, misinformation and questions. Tailor all activities to the context, adjusting for community perceptions, beliefs and practices.

- Disseminate information through diverse and appropriate communication channels to reach different groups of people. Make information available and accessible to women, men, girls, boys and persons with disabilities.

- Identify trusted sources of information or key influencers to support messages.

- Diversify communication tools and format, and simplify messages; ensuring to test messages with target group.

- Ensure translation of key messages and materials to the languages people understand.

- Use continued feedback to adapt messages to the evolving situation.

Communication and Engagement actions for People with Preexisting Medical Conditions

- Develop information on specific needs and explain why they are at more risk.

 - Encourage them to be prepared in case there is a shortage of medication or they can not access medical facilities.
 

Communication and Engagement actions for Persons with HIV/AIDS

- Include existing LGBTIQ groups, communities, and centres in engagement and outreach as they have key roles in prevention and supporting access to medical care.

- Develop QandAs/FAQs in consultation with LGBTIQ community that respond to their specific vulnerabilities and concerns.

- Reach out to regional LGBTIQ networks, if not safe or possible to do so at country or community level.
 

Communication and Engagement actions for Ethnic Minorities

- Translate information into local languages.

- Give individuals opportunities to share their questions and concerns in their own language. This also has implications for gender, as women are more likely to be monolingual

 

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