Jean-Loup Gouot, Director of Humanity & Inclusion in Bangladesh, tells us more about our work in aid of Rohingya refugees in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Nearly one third of our teams are continuing our ‘essential’ work and providing response to the COVID-19 epidemic. Other staff members have adopted alternative working methods—they work from home or do not work at the moment—and are ready to help if we need to beef up our emergency response.
For people living in refugee camps and host communities, our teams organize awareness-raising sessions on good hygiene practices to stop the spread of COVID-19. We also identify people requiring medical care and refer them to partner organizations, and provide personal psychological support to the most vulnerable individuals—the Rohingya refugees who need it.
Humanity & Inclusion has made two warehouses available—in Unchiprang and Dhumdumia—where national and international humanitarian organizations can store humanitarian equipment, a fleet of trucks can transport humanitarian aid such as hygiene kits and mobility aids, and relief for other organizations, to people living in hard-to-reach areas. We have noticed an increase in the number of trucks transporting specialized equipment in response to the coronavirus emergency.
As many Humanity & Inclusion staff members are working from home or are temporarily off work, our human resources team has developed an online training platform to build the capacities of our national and international teams. Over the next few days, they will be able to access more than 150 compulsory, recommended or optional online training courses, including on the humanitarian response to COVID-19, which can also be accessed by other colleagues in Nepal.
We aim to adapt our activities to assist Covid-19 victims and expect to launch a number of new projects very shortly.”