Door-to-door COVID-19 Education Campaign
April 2020
Following a meeting with the County Level Ministry for Health, The Nasio Trust has been approached to lead a door-to-door campaign educating the local community about COVID-19.
Nasio’s nurse and clinical officer will be training the local Government’s 340 Community Health volunteers and 16 Community Health Extension Workers, who along with our team of Peer Educators, will be covering all of the Mumias West sub county – an area that spans around 165 square km and is home to over 111,850 residents. The request for Nasio to lead this campaign is testament to how well respected the charity is in the area.
Starting on the 22nd April, the door to door campaign will cover six key elements:
- What is Coronavirus?
- Why handwashing is important.
– including giving out soap and demonstrations on how to set up Tippy Taps. - How to use and take care of masks.
– Stopping people from re-using masks and on occasion, taking them from rubbish dumps, washing the masks and reselling or reusing them without awareness of the associated risk.
– Educating people on the safe use of masks. - Gender based violence impact & sexual reproductive health.
– Education and advice on sexual reproductive health, including giving out condoms to prevent an increase of STDs.
– Data gathering for the Government to confirm if gender-based violence is increasing due to the imposed daily curfew (between 7pm and 5am).
– Educating women that they still need to go to family planning clinics as a number have been too scared to go in case they contract the virus. - Collecting data on the number of pregnant women in the region.
– The Nasio Trust need to collect data on the number of pregnant women in the region to make sure they are getting the correct medial help.
– High numbers of women in Mumias West have been too scared to seek medical help during curfew due to the threat of police brutality, with some only avoiding violence due to the fact they have a maternity book that proves they are due to have a baby.
– Nasio want to start a campaign to give each pregnant woman a document, signed by a local chief, that explains that the woman could have potential problems with their pregnancy or is near their due date and therefore needs help.
– Within this campaign, Nasio also want local motorbike riders to be authorised to take the pregnant women to hospital during the curfew for increased safety and to avoid any potential police brutality. - Childhood Immunisation
Nasio need to collect data on the number of children under 5 in the Mumias West area to make sure all children are still being immunised and their parents are educated accordingly.
Following the Kenyan Government’s announcement on the lack of PPE, all work will have to be completed using home-made masks for protection. The Nasio Trust has sourced an initial supply of theatre drapes so can now finally make better quality masks, but we are still looking to get more handheld thermometers to be able to take people’s temperature safely from a distance.
Time is truly of the essence for this campaign. With two official cases reported in Kakamega – about 30 km away – and no ICU beds in Mumias West, all training, delivery and reporting of the data will be done within 5 days.
We will continue to update you on the progress of the campaign and the current situation in Mumias and Musanda.
You can donate to our COVID-19 response appeal here.
This story is listed in: Achievements, Coronavirus
