成人论坛

Back in March 2020, everyone was worried about what would happen when the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. It is one of the most densely populated parts of the world, with challenging sanitation and limited health care resources; live in tarpaulin shelters on unstable slopes and up to 12 inhabitants share each shelter.

Experts warned that up to 98% of the population would be infected during the first year and, without effective intervention, the hospital’s 340 beds would be full to bursting within 2-5 months.

By late March, Bangladesh authorities had restricted movement in and out of the camps, and on 8 April the Bangladesh government imposed a lockdown banning all travel into and out of the district. But in May, COVID-19 was confirmed in two Rohingya refugees and 10 Bangladeshis living nearby.

Looking back, we now know the situation was not as catastrophic as anticipated; cases in the camps remained , even as they rose across the country.

Research demonstrates some success

Why this happened is difficult to explain. But our research has demonstrated one success: the level of awareness among the Rohingya population about COVID-19, driven by sustained work by several agencies including the Common Service for Community Engagement and Accountability, led by 成人论坛 Media Action, which has been supporting Rohingya people and host communities to cope with COVID-19.

We carried out a face-to-face survey in January 2021, among nearly 2,700 Rohingya refugees and more than 1,000 people in adjacent host communities, to provide robust data on access to information and accountability in the camps. We measured the reach of our Common Service communication materials in these communities, and explored the association between exposure to this content and specific outcomes.

We found that almost two-thirds of the Rohingya population felt quite well-informed or well-informed about COVID-19, and Rohingya women felt more informed than men - 65% compared to 55%. More than 70% of Rohingya people could accurately identify COVID-19 symptoms, and said they felt well- informed about how to protect themselves. And a majority of people surveyed knew how to keep themselves safe: washing their hands with soap, which they said they didn’t do before but had been doing since the pandemic; wearing masks in public; keeping distance from people and avoiding crowds.

A vital role in informing about COVID-19

Our communication initiatives played a vital role in informing people about COVID-19, particularly for women who, because of traditional community values, are often secluded from public life with limited access to media. We found that 40% of Rohingya people had high levels of knowledge about COVID-19 – 47% among women, and 33% among men. This may be because trusted NGO staff and volunteers had been particularly effective at reaching Rohingya women through listening groups, door-to-door visits and women-friendly spaces, many of them using communication tools and techniques we have provided.

This is particularly important because we found that, unlike their host communities, the Rohingya people in the camps have limited access to mass media, and receive most of their information through these face-to-face communications interventions: meetings with NGO staff and volunteers, loud-speaker announcements, and communication materials made available at listening groups, food distribution points, health facilities and information hubs. We found that people who attend these places, and are exposed to this content, have greater knowledge about COVID-19.

This is a testament to all agencies who have been working tirelessly to communicate with the community throughout the pandemic. The Common Service project played a vital role in creating and sharing communication materials, now available on our for anyone to use.

At the onset of the pandemic, we produced more than 60 communication tools () designed to improve communication, awareness and knowledge of COVID-19 for the Rohingya and host communities, and for health workers themselves.

Following requests from the World Health Organization and other health-focused agencies, we produced videos to train frontline health workers on infection prevention and control. Several agencies also used our audio recordings for community health volunteers. Later in 2020, we produced dozens more tools in response to agency and sector requests: community-facing materials on COVID-19 awareness, prevention, and mitigation, and tip sheets for new protocols for food distribution, the re-opening of registration, the principles of case management, child protection and immunisation.

Our survey data found that 75% of the Rohingya community said they had seen or heard at least five pieces of Common Service content. And, vitally, those who had accessed our content were 1.6 times as likely to have greater knowledge about COVID-19 than those who hadn’t.

"People did not want to believe Covid is a real thing, so they [Common Service] made some videos. Imams were shown using masks in the video and it used habits and quotations from the Quran – this makes people take it seriously. This worked well. That really resonated with the community,” said a field-level practitioner in the Rohingya response.

Our researchers found community members liked the content because it was made for them, in their language; it was easy to understand; they could relate to the characters and the camp setting; and it was in line with their values.

The next deadly wave

In Cox’s Bazar, the pandemic is far from over. Since April this year, Bangladesh has again been under tough COVID-19 restrictions, following another wave of infections and the spread of the ‘Delta’ variant in neighbouring countries. Cases are also rising in the camps at a higher rate than before.

Once again, we know we need to redouble our efforts to communicate with this isolated community, living in a confined space and left out of the information shared by mass media in the region. If our research has shown us one thing, it is that with a targeted communication strategy, trustworthy, relevant, and engaging content can help save lives - even from a deadly virus.

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Arif Al Mamun is 成人论坛 Media Action's Head of Research in Bangladesh. Read more insights and impact from our Common Service project on our website.