NIRDPR and UNICEF training community leaders online to combat COVID-19

More than 28.33 lakh community

leaders are being trained through online programmes to practise social behaviours required to control the transmission of COVID-19 cases in villages, the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NIRDPR) said on Thursday.

The programme is being conducted in collaboration with UNICEF Hyderabad Field Office, it said in a release.

NIRDPRs Communication Resource Unit (CRU) and UNICEF are working closely with the governments of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in preparedness and responses to contain the pandemic, the NIRDPR said.

The online training programme was initiated along the lines of a detailed Risk Communication Plan to build capacities of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI), Self-help Groups (SHG), National Service Scheme (NSS) officials, volunteers and Community Radio Stations (CRS) on the role they can play, in preventing the spread of COVID-19, in their groups and village communities.

 

"We recognized the exceptional role that Leaders of Panchayati Raj Institutions and village organizations can play in dealing with the crisis of COVID19 by disseminating reliable information.

Hence, we decided to build their capacities by endowing them with facts about COVID19, common symptoms, modes of transmission and key behaviours, among other things," W R Reddy, Director General, NIRDPR, said.

The Communication Resource Unit (CRU) of NIRDPR and UNICEF, Hyderabad field office developed and shared relevant materials such as Handouts, Posters, FAQs and Audio-visual documents with all trainees in order to be circulated in their respective rural communities, the release said.

The programme is being conducted via a digital app for enabling video conference calls with District Master Trainers from Rural Development, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) of Telangana,

officials of National Service Scheme (NSS), Health functionaries of Andhra Pradesh and Community Radio Stations functioning in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, it added.