Spreading COVID-19 Awareness to Stem the Virus
By Thawng Zel Thang
16 April 2020 – The Chin Human Rights Organization and its local partners are providing awareness and basic needed materials in response to COVID-19 prevention and control measures in Chin State.
Under its Twe Let project funded by LIFT and implemented in partnership with IOM, CHRO liaised with each township community-based organization for taking preventive and precautionary steps towards mitigating the spread of coronavirus in Myanmar’s western border, where the first positive case was announced in the country.
“We would like to make contributions towards preventing and mitigating the possible multiplication of the disease. We are focusing more on filling the gaps. We look at other activities and try to put our emphasis on those that are not prioritized in the State,” said Sang Uk Lian, deputy project manager of CHRO’s Twe Let project.
Now, local partners, who are in charge of Satellite Migration Advice Centre (SATMAC) under the LIFT-funded Twe Let project, are targeting internal migrant workers who are working on road construction in Chin State and staying at work sites, internally displaced peoples, returnees, elderly, pregnant women and children.
“Although we haven’t got detailed information and data about the targeted population, we rely much on local community-based organizations who have the knowledge and know in general about their local situations,” added Lian.
CHRO plans to conduct a rapid assessment on the needs of the local situations in the near future in an effort to come up with clearer ideas as to how action can be taken more effectively and strategically in the least developed State regarding COVID-19 response activities.
Since 2017, CHRO has been implementing one of its projects ‘Increasing the Developmental Impact of Labour Migration through Strengthened Governance and Partnership’ – called Twe Let in Burmese meaning ‘hand in hand’ – across Chin State in partnership with youth and women’s organizations in nine townships.#
