Citizens as COVID-19 Responders has four components in series format –
1) COVID-19 Responder Campaign – (March 29 to June 30) To lend support to COVID-19 mitigation efforts in Bengaluru, our Community Policing’s volunteers (also known as Area Suraksha Mitras) were activated and reequipped as COVID-19 Responders for their local neighbourhoods.
2) COVID Chronicles – (2nd April to 30th April) – This campaign was done as part of our Civic Learning programme. Students of different age groups were encouraged to take part in online competitions. Those between 8 to 12 years had Drawing competition on ‘How you spend time during lockdown’. Those between 12 to 14 years had Story Writing on lockdown experience, and 14 to 16 years had ‘Design your own mask’ competition
3) #MaskItBengaluru – (June 1 – Ongoing) campaign emerged as the logical next step to the COVID-19 Responder campaign once the Unlock phase of current crisis was declared and a new normal emerged. To enable widespread citizen adoption and participation, a platform for people to register to sew or give cloth masks was created (https://www.ichangemycity.com/mask/) and has enabled 500 citizen volunteers to cumulatively distribute 12000+ re-useable mask to those in need.
4) Ward Committees for Disaster Management – As the next phase, we are focusing on supporting the Ward Committees that are activated as disaster management committees by the BBMP. Our campaign will aim make active citizens join as volunteers in their wards and support in monitoring and relief work regarding COVID at ward level.
