74 Youth Volunteers of VSP conducted Public Awareness Campaign Against DENGUE !

Due to rising number of cases during and after monsoon season, Vikas Sahyog Pratishthan (VSP) in partnership with Plan India and in collaboration with Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) launched a campaign to raise public awareness about the methods of Prevention of Dengue in Mumbai and Pune regions of Maharashtra. The campaign covered 40 slum pockets of Mumbai and 30 of Pune. The completed target was to reach out to 2,02,593 households of Mumbai and Pune through which 10,12,965 individuals has been successfully reached.

The awareness was carried out through the following methodologies:

1) Door to Door Campaign:

       

2) Auto miking:

3) FM radio channels:

Mumbai - 98.3 Radio Mirchi

Pune - 104.2 Mirchi Love

4) Hoardings through Bus shelters:

                      

4) IEC Materials:

                

             

            
   

                   

 

Achievements and Visible Outcomes:

A.    By taking Preventive Actions:

a)       Water from around 6.35% fish tanks was restored by individuals in the family.

b)       40.95% of tanks were properly closed by people after knowing the causes of dengue.

c)       Around 2.56% of tyres were emptied in which water was saturated.

d)       Around 3.41% of pipelines were leaking, which was shown to the people from the community. They then assured the volunteer team to repair them after knowing the fact that dengue mosquitos are evolved due to such saturation of water.

e)       1.30% of patients were found who were suffering from fever but ignoring the same to visit the doctor. Such patients were given information to visit Primary Health Centres of MCGM and PMC hospitals respectively.

B.     By reaching out through various Methodologies:

Ø  In total, 2,02,593 households were approached by our 79 volunteers in the high risk dengue wards of Mumbai and Pune regions through door-to-door campaign. This has enabled to reach 10,12,965 individuals in Mumbai and Pune.

Ø  Overall, 54.58% of individuals took preventive actions after listening to the awareness information given by volunteers.

Ø  Through FM campaign, according to the listenership details obtained from Times Group, our dengue awareness jingle has been reached to around 93% of people in Mumbai (98.3-Radio Mirchi) and 54% of people in Pune (104.2-Mirchi Love).

Ø  Auto Miking has enabled to reach out to around 6,00,000 individuals from Mumbai and Pune.

Ø  4,50,000 individuals have been reached through Hoardings at Bus Shelters in Mumbai.

C.    Through IEC materials, News and Digital Marketing:

Ø  Awareness made through IEC materials was reached to 2,00,000 households by distributing leaflets, sticking of 20,000 posters were after every 10 houses in the community through which 10,00,000 individuals were reached out.

Ø  T-shirts and Caps were given to volunteers through which an atmosphere of campaigning was built up and a visibility of campaign was created.

Ø  Campaign news were published through which readers of Pudhari (Mumbai), Loksatta (Pune) and Lokmat (Pune) were reached.

Ø  Awareness through Digital marketing was done through Social Media Platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram by VSP Staff, Volunteers through which more people were given information regarding the ongoing campaign.

D.    Positive changes in People, Communities and Volunteers:

ü  Due to door to door awareness, people are getting sensitive towards the issue of Dengue.

ü  They showed willingness to know regarding dengue and are taking preventive measures immediately which is possible to them.

ü  Volunteers have developed good communication skills, techniques to deal with people while giving information as well as observing the water conditions of the household and the community.

E.     Feedbacks from the MCGM and PMC officials:

v  Mr. Girish Bapat, Cabinet Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection and Guardian Minister of Pune were given IEC materials which were distributed among the communities where he shared his humble thanks for conducting the campaign which provided a great support for the PMC Health Department in Pune.

v  Mr. Sanjeev Vavare, Health Officer of PMC shared that due to auto-miking done by VSP and Plan India in 5 wards of Pune, they were able to aware other wards of Pune through auto-miking done by PMC. Due to which more number of people were covered and reach out was possible to entire Pune region.

v  Officer from Medical Pest Control Department of Mumbai and Pune shared their observations with VSP that volunteers were having good skills of communication with the community. This was a good initiative taken by VSP and Plan India in both the regions.

Conclusion:

Campaign against Dengue was a great experience where people and communities were connected through four methodologies conducted through the campaign. Young energy of volunteers was involved which were the backbone of the campaign. The completed target of reach out is 2,02,593 households of Mumbai and Pune along with 10,12,965 individuals has been successfully achieved. Also, we have reached out to the people of the entire 2 regions through Auto miking, FM radio channels and Hoardings through Bus shelters.

The Municipal Corporation officers from both Mumbai and Pune supported the campaign through due permissions, IEC materials and other support during the actual working. Also, they were thankful for the support provided to them by VSP and Plan India in this dengue awareness campaign. The Pest Control Department also supported during the actual working of the campaign.