SHILLONG, May 23: The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic has also attacked villages in the far corner of the state. The virus has not even spared the villages which are within the project area of North East Slow Food and Agro-biodiversity Society (NESFAS). This has compelled NESFAS to go beyond the mandate of the project that the NGO is working on along with 130 villages in Meghalaya and Nagaland and embark in the work of suppressing the spread of the virus.
It was the surge of cases in a non-descript village in Ri Bhoi district from one case to 73 cases which compelled NESFAS to extend support to the community and the other project villages that it operates. The immediate step taken was to organise Zoom meetings with the 130 villages in Meghalaya and Nagaland.
The Zoom meeting organised to discuss strategies and plan to combat the pandemic was joined by the headman of the villages, ASHAs, Anganwadis, COVID committees of the respective villages, community facilitators, staffs of the organisations and medical officers from three PHCs.
Till the third week of May, many villages did not even have a quarantine centre and it was the reason that the numbers of COVID-19 positive cases increased. It was also learned that many of the volunteers who are frontline workers engaged by the Dorbar Shnong even in the village where there are positive cases do not have proper protective gear like face shield, masks, gloves and etc.
After the online orientation programme, 25 villages activated the community’s quarantine centres. NESFAS in collaboration with Bhoilymbong CHC was also able to provide special assistance to facilitate the starting of three quarantine centres in Khweng and Liarsluid.
Necessary requirements of the centres like blanket, mattress, bed, pillow, hand sanitizers, face shields, hand gloves, N95 masks was provided to the community with the donation of Anita Swer. NESFAS was also able to provide 10 portable oxygen cylinders for Jatah PHC (3 units), Swer PHC (3 units) and Bhoirymbong CHC (4 units) and the NGO was also able to networking with Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Shillong, for oxygen langar support to the communities. NESFAS is planning to support communities by providing the 360 volunteers in different villages with protective gears.
But unfortunately through the Zoom meeting, it was found that people are still reluctant in taking the vaccination, the communities agreed that there is a need of an intensive vaccination campaign at the village level to convince the people to take the vaccination.
Dr Subharata Das of Jatah PHC, Dr H Rymbai Laitryngew and Dr Crucybeljune Kharbani of Myriaw PHC, also joined the Zoom meeting to help make people aware of the pandemic situation and the importance of getting vaccinated. The meetings were chaired by Pius Rani and other who joined the meetings was HH Mohrmen, Nestar Kharmawphlang, Fr Bernard Laloo of Social Service Centre, Pasqualina Lamare of Society for Urban and Rural empowerment (SURE), Akole and Vila of North East Network, (NEN) Nagaland.
