Humanitarian Act During Covid -19

Peace for People during COVID-19 Pandemic

Nepal, like other countries, has been heavily affected by the ongoing global pandemic of COVID-19. The soaring positive tests and the reported deaths had shown an alarming situation in Nepal in the year 2020.

The Government of Nepal took the decision to go for a nationwide lockdown, hours after the second coronavirus case was confirmed on 23 March, 2020. The sudden implementation of nationwide lockdown adversely impacted the daily-wage workers. Most of them could manage household supplies and savings just for a week. The intention of imposing lockdown was to prevent the widespread of COVID-19 but for the daily-wage workers, it appeared to be the major factor of depriving them of their only source of income. This situation brought most of the domestic migrant workers living in Kathmandu valley under the problem of food shortage. Having witnessed the worsening condition of poor and disadvantaged people, Peace for People donated 1 sack of lentils and 10 sacks of rice to the Koteshwar Youth Reform Club for launching a Food Relief Support Program, which fed regular meals to around 1,000 people by adopting the necessary safety measures.

As the country was on lockdown, people were forbidden to do the social movements and compelled to stay at home. During this period, the new realities – working from home, temporary unemployment and lack of physical contact with acquaintances and colleagues –  made many people vulnerable to mental stress and dissatisfaction. Hence, Peace for People started a Social Media Campaign with a motive to generate and spread positivity among the people during this difficult time. The videos – of members of the organization sharing the experiences and opinions about the COVID-19 impact on society – were uploaded and shared through Facebook and Instagram. The campaigners spoke about the need of being optimistic and dealing with this time with great physical and mental care. Similarly, the message – to not believe in fake news that goes around on the Internet which directly has a negative impact on people – was flowed through those videos. The videos sharing the message of Do’s and Don’ts of COVID-19 were found to have been watched by 50,000 people across the nation.

COVID-19 has struck the education sector of Nepal severely. All the educational institutions have been shut down for the past several months. This had left the feeling of uncertainty to many students and parents regarding their academics. In regard to this, Peace for People started counseling teachers and students from different schools on making the virtual method of learning effective. Apart from this, the students werealso motivated to learn various skills like reading books, self-cooking, gardening, sanitizing their own residence, interacting with the family members et cetera at home.