This document provides an overview of recommendations and guidance to all Sectors to strengthen community engagement primarily for support of the elderly and the vulnerable, as well as people with specific needs as part of broader COVID-19 preparedness and response plan.
Below guidance aims to support humanitarian and health actors community engagement initiatives to ensure the elderly are receiving information on COVID-19 and Rohingya refugees are informed on who the vulnerable individuals are and how they can minimize risk of spread in congested setting.
Recommendations below were developed by CWC Working Group coordination team with inputs from CWC partners and guidance from health professionals. The recommendations can be used by Sectors, as well as CWC partners.
CWC Working Group proposes two way approach: community engagement focused on consultations, interpersonal discussions and active engagement with volunteers as well as civil society organizations, community leaders and Camp Committee representatives to inform communities about existing risks for the elderly and ensure their movement is decreased through tailored service provision. This would be done in a gender-responsive way , by engaging women volunteers, women leaders and women’s network and ensuring all messages are accessible to women and girls and take into account the cultural and religious context and gender norms and roles; including also through engagement with male community leaders and members, including religious leaders. Simultaneously to these efforts mass messaging on overall vulnerability will be carried out by CWC partners. One key advocacy point from CWC side is to ensure the elderly are not stigmatized and plans put in place by humanitarians have community ownership as a core component to ensure initiatives are acceptable and concepts are understood, for example when it comes to isolation or quarantine. As community consultations have already highlighted the risk of women being blamed for COVID-19, due to some views that women are breaking purdah or not upholding their “honor”, particular attention will be paid to avoid stigmatization of elderly women. All sectors should also work with organizations that provide services for marginalized groups, persons with disabilities in order to ensure that COVIDrelated information reaches those whose access to information is hindered as they do not engage with the “mainstream” community.
As part of overall CWC efforts partners should continue to employ a variety of community approaches and trusted communication channels to reach, influence, include, enable and engage communities with accessible, accurate, easily understood and trusted health information about COVID-19 risk and transmission, causes, symptoms, prevention and treatment through trusted communication channels.i Messages about COVID even around such complex issues as isolation, quarantine and treatment will have to be timely, simple and fact based to avoid unwanted behavior changes. Those partners on the ground whether engaged in mass messaging on community consultations will need to assess the rumors shared by the community and try to answer with information backed by WHO/Health Sector. It will be important to ensure that these messages are reaching elderly women and men, as well as their family members. Messages should be targeted not only in service areas and common areas , but also in the blocks so as to ensure that the elderly with limited mobility can access messages