The fast infection rate and nascent medical knowledge around the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) makes remote rural communities across the planet highly vulnerable to severe health and socio-economic crises. The least served members of society often struggle the most to identify credible information regarding some of the most essential topics of the day. Through a pan India survey conducted with the help of Barefoot College’s partner organizations, it was highlighted that access to accurate information about coronavirus remains a challenge. This is even when a large volume of awareness materials has been created by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the World Health Organization, and other renowned and credible organizations. Such no or misinformation can be a serious detriment to those who are already resource-limited, living in close-quartered villages since they live in very close proximity to each other, use many common facilities, and thus possess a high chance of contracting coronavirus from each other, if appropriate precautions are not taken.
The gaps identified were inequities in the way information was being provided; much of which is targeted for a population who can read and write. In addition, information is seldom provided in the commonly understood dialect which increases the risk of missing out on crucial information. The rural communities also have limited or no means to verify information resulting in spread of myths. Many of the preventive measures prescribed are neither adapted to the rural poor realities nor have been contextualized to be relevant for them: for e.g. the existing information is either online based and do not provide concrete examples of rural scenarios to understand spread and associate precautions that can be adopted.
In order to address this challenge, Barefoot College International has developed In order to address this challenge, Barefoot College International proposes two pronged strategies leveraging the wide access to a feature phone and in many cases smartphones: Interactive Voice Response (IVR) telephone calls and animated videos.
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