RSPN, along with its implementing partner Sarhad Rural Support Programme, have initiated the ‘Dissemination of Preventive Messages in the Rural Communities – COVID 19 Response’ project in 6 Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa namely Swat, Malakand, Buner, Upper Dir, Mansehra & Peshawar. The Project has been active since the 24th of June 2020. Through this project accurate information is being disseminated to the masses on COVID-19 disease, its symptoms as well as standard precautionary measures vital to help safeguard communities. This project is focusing on targeting rural communities, with the 20 most-vulnerable Union Councils of each respective District having been selected with the local administration’s help.
Key project activities included megaphone announcements in streets through religious leaders/places, announcement through megaphones in the settlements, at household level awareness sessions deliverance through CRP and text message dissemination among the masses.
For this activity, each Social Mobiliser had to make announcements in ten (10) settlements of their designated areas each working day. Because of the delayed provision of assistance material i.e. Megaphones, this activity started with a delay. However, to achieve the desired project outcomes, (i.e. dissemination of the preventive messages amongst the masses at the earliest), SRSP initiated the activity by arranging megaphones from inventories of other projects.
This activity was conducted initially in Swat and Upper Dir, followed by Peshawar, Malakand, and Buner.
To date their progress is 2,026, 1,894, 2,845, 2,537, and 348 messages delivered, respectively.
In order to effectively disseminate messages, influential and acceptable institutions among the masses such as religious places were included. The religious place announcements were effectively conducted in all districts soon after the project staff’s onboarding. To date, a total of 1,412 announcements in Peshawar, 1,910 in SWAT, 1,135 in Malakand, 2,399 in Buner,1,408 in Dir Upper while 960 in Mansehra have been conducted.
A thorough and detailed CRP training in six (06) districts was conducted to orient them on their expected activities and targets. 110 CRPs in each district were trained.
| DISTRICT | Total | Male | Female | Transgender |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PESHAWAR | 110 | 70 | 38 | 2 |
| BUNER | 110 | 91 | 19 | 0 |
| MALAKAND | 110 | 58 | 52 | 0 |
| SWAT | 110 | 66 | 44 | 0 |
| MANSEHRA | 110 | 94 | 16 | 0 |
| DIR UPPER | 110 | 110 | 0 | 0 |
The CRPs were oriented regarding the contents of the sessions they will conduct with their respective communities. They were also oriented on the record-keeping of their sessions and submission of their attendance sheets to their respective Social Mobiliser.
This activity was initiated as soon as the CRP training events were completed. CRPs were sent the predesigned text/audio messages for dissemination among the masses.
To date, a total of 150,462 messages have been disseminated in Peshawar, 71,342 in Swat, 121,573 in Malakand, 96,838 in Buner, 132,077 in Dir Upper while 68,263 messages have been circulated in Mansehra.
