Date: 02. April 2020

Time: 11:00 am-1300 pm

Venue: Help Main Office

Participants: Help’s staff in Afghanistan

Coronavirus has spread to most countries around the world and has affected many people. Emergency measures have been taken in most countries including of developing countries. The developing countries such as Afghanistan, become more vulnerable of this Pandemic. Therefore, Help is also working on some plans to do significant work in this crisis situation. Regarding of this issue, Help in Afghanistan held a meeting between its staff to discuss and consult about activities that prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Afghanistan.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Zabihullah Monib, country director of Help in Afghanistan, talked about this issue. He said that Help in its turn, wants to provide humanitarian activities in this crisis situation according to the needs of the community. Therefore, we can help our society in preventing of the coronavirus spread in Afghanistan. Mr. Monib mentored that we will do our efforts to convince some donors to cooperate with us financially in this regard. So that with this work, we can cooperate with our compatriots and increase their information about this disease.

Then, Mr. Mohammad Ali Soroosh, the program manager of Help in Afghanistan, continued the meeting and explained the activities that Help can do in this regard. He said, “according to our previous and current activities, we’re going to do humanitarian activities to contribute in limiting of the virus spread. Mr. Soroosh said, we have taken a list of activities prepared with Department of Public Health and is the current needs of Herat province. Then among of these activities we have selected the following four activities.
1. Provision and distribution of Protective Kits / PPE Kits (medical cloths, medical gloves, glasses, masks.) and Hygiene Parcels for health care staff, as well as for COVID-19 patients at specialized Covid-19 Hospital in Herat.
2. Provision of disinfection equipment and disinfectants for disinfecting crowded areas such as Islam Qala border (Iran-Afghanistan border), food markets, police stations, municipality, terminals, airports, crowded routes and Hospitals.
3. Prevent the spread of coronavirus through awareness activities in the community.
4. Preparing and organizing some activities; entertaining- training programs and COVID-19 and psycho social awareness sessions for most vulnerable children and street working children to keep them at home to be safe of coronavirus.

According to the current activities of Help in vocational training for vulnerable children and street working children, as they are at risk and are a big virus carrier for their family members, it was decided this time as well to focus more on the most vulnerable children and street working children. Majority of participants talked about provision of some entertaining – educational equipment and materials and distribute for them. Also it is talked to prepare some entertaining and awareness animation clips for them and broadcast them through TVs. Therefore, these children will be entertained through these equipment and media and stay at home, as well as gain some useful information.

At the end, participants shared their view pints, suggestions and comments about the four mentioned activities and was decided to do more research on these activities.

Source: Help’s IT & Public Relations Department