The coronavirus crisis has seen communities coming together. People are providing support to others in their time of need.
Streets have been setting up WhatsApp groups. Friends are connecting via Zoom or over the phone. Many are volunteering to support the elderly and vulnerable, who are having to self-isolate.
This is similar to the work of Women and Children First in the world’s poorest countries.
Bringing communities together to solve health problems is at the heart of the work that we do. Annemijn Sondaal, Programmes Manager, explains how the groups have worked in Ethiopia.
“When the groups form, women are given the tools to identify their biggest shared health concerns. This helps them focus on finding joint solutions to overcome the problems they are facing. Using these tools, they identified problems such as prolonged labour.
“To address this issue, the group members collaborated to make a stretcher. Because of inaccessible roads, the ambulance has difficulty reaching the community and gets delayed. This stretcher helps transport women in an emergency to a road, which the ambulance can gain access.
“The group led on fundraising efforts to gather the money they needed for the stretcher. They set up a committee responsible for managing the process: getting people to donate, buying the materials, finding someone to make the stretcher and identifying volunteers to carry it in the event of an emergency.”
The building blocks of Women and Children First’s group approach could help you and your local community in this time of crisis to support those in need. Many of these building blocks can work digitally, as well as in-person:
Ask the right questions: is your group working to tackle the most pressing problems in your community? Are these concerns shared by others? Are you not duplicating efforts of someone else?
Annemijn adds, “It is so vital that the community, and the key people in that community, are involved in the decision-making process.”
Have a good structure in place for your group: Use the following four-phase cycle to guide your discussions:
Identify problems
Plan solutions
Implement solutions
Evaluate effectiveness of solutions
Annemijn says, “Our group in Ethiopia applied this approach. They identified a problem – prolonged labour. They planned a solution – making a stretcher. They implemented a solution – building it and using it to transport women to a road to meet an ambulance, or to a health facility.
“They then evaluated its effectiveness. They were able to bring more women to health facilities in an emergency and, as a result, saved the lives of more mothers and their babies.”
Be inclusive and reach out: Try to bring together a diverse group, virtually if necessary, with different skills and experiences. Get to know each other. This can help you respond better to the needs of your community.
Annemijn explains, “Having a meeting structure can help. It’s also important to have a sense of cohesion, shared concerns and a sense of connection, of really getting to know each other.”
Women and Children First is continuing to work with our groups and beneficiaries, in a world defined in the short term by Covid-19, but in the long term by continued inequalities facing women, children and young people in the world’s poorest communities.
This invaluable work can only continue with your donations. Please do give if you can.