May : Today, India is among the worst-hit countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The data of infected, affected and death cases has been rising at an alarming pace. To make matters worse, the global pandemic has impaired the Indian economy to such an extent that it has gravely impacted the lives and living of not just the poor but of everyone else alike. As family incomes shrink, we will see a sharp rise in child marriages and child labour leading to children dropping out of the education system completely.
Swapnil Tawde, Deputy General Manager – West & Myanmar, Magic Bus said, “We have been working in Jagadia & Viramgam blocks in Gujarat for over 2 years now with more than 12000 children and their families. When the vaccination drives started in Gujarat we noticed that villagers had vaccine hesitancy even though cases were rising. They had many misconceptions regarding the vaccine. It was a struggle to convince them. Through consistent awareness building campaigns we successfully changed perceptions. We have been instrumental in moving these blocks from zero vaccination to more than 11,000 people being successfully vaccinated.”
Alpa Chauhan, Regional Director – West, Magic Bus added, “Our initiatives be it emergency relief or long term programmes, aim towards building resilient communities. Resilience is the base of how we all respond to and emerge from hardship. Currently, we are attempting to tackle the more immediate and urgent fallouts of the pandemic. While food security, awareness on the infection, community engagement and welfare continue to be paramount to helping families cope, what is absolutely necessary is to continue learning engagements for the children on our programme. This will be a prime marker in ensuring they are connected to learning while schools are closed and do not drop out of the education system, even as their families see a fall in incomes. ”
In this hour of global calamity, the children, young people and their communities need the ability to cope with this crisis. For over two decades, Magic Bus through its life skills education, has been building resilience among its children to help them face struggles and hardship at every stage of life. 82% of children reported that our life skills sessions had helped them to cope with the uncertainties of the pandemic, as reported in a Magic Bus COVID-19 Impact Survey in 2020. Now more than ever, resilience is what is needed to help deal with the crisis and Magic Bus’s emergency COVID-19 second wave responses are purposed towards saving lives and building resilience among communities, families and children.
As one of the initiatives of the COVID-19 second wave response, the Magic Bus team in Jagadia & Viramgam blocks in Gujarat, initiated a vaccination awareness campaign for families, designed to create awareness on the importance and benefits of the vaccine. Magic Bus Youth Mentors worked closely with the Block Health Officer and village level Primary Health Centres to create awareness through events, community meetings, and door-to-door visits. Joint meetings were also conducted with the Block Health Officer, Primary Health Centre and Medical Officer to devise a plan to share information and create awareness. The team reached out to over 10,000 households across 100 villages in Jagadia & Viramgam to create awareness and guide them on the process of taking the vaccine. As a result, 11,131 people have successfully been vaccinated till date. Many elderly were not able to reach the vaccination centres, and so youth mentors facilitated vaccinations in their homes.
Magic Bus’s presence across 22 states enables them to reach out to large numbers in need of help. Magic Bus is committed to providing medical support such as life-saving medication, oxygen concentrators, cylinders, etc. in partnership with government health systems, local organisations and agencies specialised in providing such support. So that the children are safe, the organisation will reach out to their families with awareness on COVID-19 prevention, vaccination and create linkages to government entitlements that ensure food security and also distribute ration to the most marginalised, where needed.
