Livelihood Support and Women’s Empowerment in Cox’s Bazaar-COVID 19

This project aims to decrease coronavirus (COVID-19) related mortality and morbidity, among affected populations, especially those experiencing marginalization and/or vulnerability in Cox’s Bazar. The project works to mitigate the risk of community spread and increase local response capacity. Bangladesh is at a high risk given its slow response to the pandemic, weak health care system capacity, and high population density. For the host communities in Cox’s Bazar, the second poorest and most vulnerable district in Bangladesh even before the influx of the Rohingya in August 2017, COVID-19 has put immense pressure on the availability and delivery of essential health services, which were already scarce and overstretched. In addition, there are major concerns around a large-scale COVID-19 outbreak in the dense Rohingya refugee camps, due to limited health system capacity, and increasing restrictions on humanitarian access to the camps.

Project activities include:

(1) procuring and distributing medical equipment and medical supplies (cleaning materials, soap, paper towels, tables, chairs, benches, beds, fans, desks, lights, floor mats, etc.) for health facilities; (2) providing personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical professionals in primary healthcare centers in the refugee camps; (3) distributing masks, soap, and sanitizer supplies to community health workers and clients visiting health centers; (4) providing capacity building and training on case management and infection prevention and control to public health care professionals and service providers (doctors, midwives, paramedics, lab technicians, etc.); (5) providing communication and community engagement measures such as, training on effective engagement in case management, infection prevention, and risk reduction and awareness, particularly by women health workers communication actions at the district, divisional and national levels, including providing up-to-date information on COVID-19 to doctors and field support teams at the community level; and (6) organizing door-to-door awareness building sessions for self-reporting and maintaining social distancing within communities. The projects’ ongoing engagement with relevant civil society, government, and community stakeholders are expected to directly benefit approximately 8,132 individuals (of which 7,587 are women).