By Matters India Reporter
Hyderabad, June 27, 2020: With an unprecedented spike in the corona cases, the Health Minister of Telangana State Eetala Rajender pleaded with NGOs to help curb the spread.
Fourteen individuals from nine NGOs, including faith-based organizations, were invited to the meeting at very short notice on June 26 to highlight the seriousness of the matter.
“The Minister has requested help from NGOs in managing the crisis. We have offered to help in the following manner,” said Brother Varghese Theckanath, director of Montfort Social Institute MSI).
MSI and others would take care of running a COVID-19 helpline for patients, suspected patients and attendants or those undergoing quarantine.
There is already a helpline with 10 doctors. More doctors could be requested to join. The overload on doctors and nurses was highlighted. Counseling of health personnel, as well as the sick and their families, is urgently required, said Brother Theckanath, social worker and human rights activist.
“We have asked him (Eetala) to set up help desks at all the COVID hospitals with medical and nursing students to guide the patients.
The NGO delegation has also pushed him to decrease fear of Corona among ordinary people by getting film actors, sportspersons and other celebrities involved in talking to Corona cured patients in a media campaign that could probably be called a fancy name ‘Corona warriors’.
“We asked him to give a call to all kinds of community organizations – social, religious and community health to get involved and help the government in managing it,” said Brother Theckanath.
The participants of the meeting stressed the need to start community quarantines in hotspots or densely populated areas so that asymptomatic or mild symptoms or those getting discharged from hospitals could be quarantined here. They also asked him to give permissions to run such quarantine centers and told him that NGOs would train people.
We have requested him to offer support from the government in terms of sanitation and food. Aman Vedika, Yugantar, an NGO, offered to run such centers.
Church-run institutions could be called upon their large facilities for this purpose. Anveshi, another NGO, offered support in terms of training the volunteers in protocols.
Another group offered to help deal with the difficulty related to burials/cremations of people of all religions. They said there are 50 volunteers available 24/7.
We also asked him to get political party leaders in community health education so that people’s fear of COVID is reduced, as it occurred in Kerala.
The Minister concluded with the remark that the State is faced with an unprecedented emergency to which all, especially civil society and religious organizations need to assist the Government.