Digital Signage to be installed at 20 stations of BRT for mass awareness on COVID-19

PESHAWAR, Sep 17 (APP):Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation Pakistan, in collaboration with CESVI Pakistan, Planning and Development Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the financial assistance of the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) is installing digital signage at 20 stations of Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

These screens will be used for displaying risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) messages for mass awareness amid the 4th wave of the unprecedented menace of COVID-19 pandemic.

Under its project for “Improving National Capacity to Respond to COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan (Cap-COVID)”, Helvetas and Cesvi have been actively involved in relief and recovery efforts in three districts of Khyber Paktunkhwa including Peshawar, Mardan, and Khyber, two districts of Balochistan including Quetta and Pishin, three districts of Punjab including Sheikhupura, Gujranwala and Sarghoda and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony of the installation of the screens was held on September 17, 2021, at BRT Head Quarter, Chamkani-Peshawar.

The ceremony was participated by Dr. Arjumand Nizami, Country Director Helvetas, Farhan Ahmad Khan, Country Director Cesvi, Fayaz Khan, Chief Executive Officer BRT, Muhammad Imran Khan, General Manager Operations and Marketing BRT, Muhammad Sohaib, Assistant Manager BRT Control Centre, Munawar Khan Khattak, Project Coordinator Helvetas, Dr Muhammad Asad Salim, National Program Officer Helvetas, Yasir Dil, Communications Coordinator Cesvi.

Risk Communication and Community Engagement is an integral part of Cap-COVID’s emergency response efforts to COVID-19, intending to spread information regarding precautionary measures and reinforce the importance of SOPs compliance amongst beneficiary communities.
Along with an extensive on-ground RCCE strategy that has been employing print mediums to disseminate awareness-raising material across healthcare facilities and other public places in target areas in KP, Punjab, Balochistan, and ICT.

Helvetas and Cesvi are also using digital mediums to raise awareness about essential COVID-19 SOPs. Installation of the digital signage at BRT stations is part of these efforts.

The project is supporting 120 health facilities in Mardan, Peshawar, Khyber, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Sargodha, Quetta and Pishin. Through ECHO’s generous support in Cap-COVID, it has successfully managed to reinforce COVID-19 relief and response efforts of front-line workers and healthcare facilities through the provision of thousands of PPEs (surgical face masks, hand sanitizers and gloves) and medical care equipment for the continuation of essential health services along with handling COVID-19 caseload in field areas.

The medical equipment provided to different hospitals in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan includes doppler ultrasound, nebulizer, oxygen cylinder, oxygen concentrator, pulse oximeter, ECG machine, cardiac monitor, defibrillator, BiPAP machine, infusion pump, Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) kits, video bronchoscope, High-Flow Nasal Therapies.
Whereas a centralized oxygen system for 30 beds will be provided to Naseerullah Khan Babar Memorial Hospital in Peshawar, with its aim to support the provincial government’s efforts in reinforcing the critical care capacity of the hospital during its COVID-19 response.

Similarly, Cap-COVID has successfully complemented and added value to the government’s ongoing efforts of technical capacity building of its human resource in the context of COVID-19 by creating a pool of master trainers including doctors, nurses and allied health professionals in KP, Punjab, Balochistan, and ICT.