Community took it up!

[Souvik Sarkar]

It all started as we were expecting the second wave of Corona. Global Fund for Children (GFC) in connection with Delhi Solidarity Group did training on home-based care for different organizations helping communities to fight against the second wave. We (the Purnata team) were invited by GFC to participate in a Delhi Solidarity Group workshop.

 

A few of us attended the workshop, were trained, and were made aware of certain things to do. We got funding to buy some equipment. After our workshop, we conducted training in the community in North 24 Parganas, West Bengal (India) with medical doctors and some volunteers whom we said we would be paying if they would help the community. We paid for their work for two months. This went well, and the communities benefited. We also did awareness and various things in the communities. This all ended in Nov.

 

 In Jan 2022, we saw a surge of cases of Omicron in various places. We felt the need for home-based care. We again started looking out for volunteers who would again help us with home-based care work. We connected with a few volunteers who had already worked with us to see if they wanted to do it again. We clearly told them that it would be their initiative, and we would just give them the equipment, and most of them gave us a positive answer and took up their own responsibility to help in their own communities. 

 

So this gave us the joy to see that they just wanted to help their communities without them being paid. We saw this change. Maybe the first time we approached them that they might work if we pay them, but this time we were not sure about the funding, and we said to them that we do not have funds, but we can give them equipment so that they can help their communities, and they readily took those responsibilities, and they have started helping their people in the communities like doing check-ups, telling them about how they can protect themselves and their children in this time when Omicron is creating havoc in West Bengal.