Pandemic: A Wake-Up-Call to Fact Checking

Risk Communication and Community Engagement is a project by DEF that has actively intervened in dealing with the pandemic at the village level by creating awareness about the precautions and busting the myths. In this regard, the youth of the village have proved to be great carriers of the message who have engaged to help their community understand the social and health related aspects around COVID-19.

The centre coordinator, Sunita Nishad from Raipur district, shares, “By involving the youth of the village through the youth club, the misconceptions related to the vaccine measures to avoid COVID-19 were cleared in the community. Wide public awareness on these subjects was made possible by training and authenticated information provided by the organisation. 

Making the youth aware has had an impact on the entire village. As a result of awareness among the youth about the vaccine and precautionary dose, all the youth of the village have voluntarily come forward to get the booster dosage along with motivating other citizens. The youth have begun to reject the unverified information and misconceptions related to the vaccine that gets circulated in the community and have given a positive message to the society. 

It has been extremely important to work closely with the youth through this project run by the foundation and I myself have become more confident. I practise fact checking and provide only relevant information to the people around me.”