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When the college hostel of Romana Murmu, an 18-year Santal girl, was closed at the onset of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, she returned home at Bodhghari para under Gobindaganj upazila in Gaibandha with an intense fear of the deadly virus infection.

She was also concerned about her Santal community, one of the most underprivileged ethnic minority, since they were most vulnerable to coronavirus infection due to lack of adequate preventive measures.

Romana, an intermediate student of Panchbibi Degree College, Joypurhat, said COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease, so Santals got panicked at the beginning of the pandemic, thinking of their inadequate preventive measures.

“Tension gripped us when we were asked to stay at home during the pandemic to stay safe from the virus. If our parents could not go out for works, how would they bear family expenses and our educational costs? And it was our grave concern,” she said.

Most of the Santal minority people are landless and live in extreme poverty. Their livelihood depends on agriculture. That is why they have no adequate financial capacity to buy virus preventive materials.

“Earlier, I was imparted with community volunteers training under the UNDP’s the Human Rights Programme. Through the project, we got informed that we have to use mask to keep us safe from coronavirus,” said Romana.

She said: “At first, I asked my family members to follow health guidelines – to use mask while going out of home, wash hands with soap for 20 seconds and avoid public gatherings to prevent coronavirus.”

Later, the Santal girl said, she made her neighbours aware of the adverse consequences of COVID-19 and suggested them to follow the government instructions and health guidelines to keep themselves safe from coronavirus.

Like Romana, 120 Santal youth community volunteers, have been conducting COVID-19 awareness campaign in Gobindaganj upazila of the district to protect their Santal community from the virus infection.

“We visited door-to-door of our community to make them understand about the impacts of COVID-19 and campaigned on how they can remain safe from the virus,” said Teresa Saren, a youth volunteer.

To create awareness among the Santal people about COVID-19 impacts, she said, they also distributed leaflets inscribed with health guidelines in the community.

“We gave them hands-on lesson on how to use mask and wash hands with soap,” Teresa said.

“Now we are more aware of coronavirus…we use mask, regularly wash our hands with soap and follow the health guidelines,” said a 40-year Santal woman, Rokina Soren.

Sakina Murmu, another youth volunteer, said: “As the Santal community people have been following our advice, none of them was infected with coronavirus yet”.

AKM Mahbubul Alam Mukul, project coordinator of ABALAMBAN, said with support from the UNDP, ABALAMBAN has been implementing a project, since 2018, to establish the rights and dignity of ethnic minority of Gaibandha district and enhance their capacity.

Over the period, he said, the project developed leadership capacity of 120 ethnic youth and now they have been playing a vital role in preventing COVID-19 in the Santal community.