COVID-19: Communicating and engaging with communities remotely through loudspeakers

Since 2012, Rakhine became a fragile area after the conflict between Rakhine ethnic group and the Rohingya Muslim community broke out. Since then, the tension between the two groups has been high until now. In 2017, the Islamic armed group name ARSA attached the border guard police posts.

After that, the Myanmar military started clearance operation in Rakhine, which resulted in thousands of Rohingya to flee the country. Since then, visits to conflicted areas are strictly monitored and restricted for visitors. 

Rakhine is already one of the most fragile areas in Myanmar. Even before the COVID-19 outbreak, working in the communities, has been difficult for NGOs because of the securities risks and government restrictions. Because of constant gunfights between armed groups, the internet connection has been cut off for several months in the areas we work. 

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Myanmar government-imposed movement restrictions in most of the areas and banned mass gathering activities. Without the internet to share awareness messages on social media and banned mass gathering for field visiting, World Vision Myanmar’s Rakhine team came up with the idea to engage with the community.

Mobile loudspeakers became the best choice for reaching out to spread awareness message of COVID 19. Pre-recorded audio messages of COVID-19 awareness, in local dialects, from the Ministry of Health and Sports, was downloaded and shared with the volunteers from each village in the target areas where they would go around the village and play the awareness message audio. The awareness spreading was carried out by the volunteers in their respective communities. The activity lasted for a total of 5 days.