Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide

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Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide is a stress management guide for coping with adversity. The guide aims to equip people with practical skills to help cope with stress. A few minutes each day are enough to practice the self-help techniques. The guide can be used alone or with the accompanying audio exercises.

Informed by evidence and extensive field testing, the guide is for anyone who experiences stress, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances.

Source: Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide

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    Technical Note on COVID-19 and Harmful Practices

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    COVID-19 has upended the lives of children and families across the globe and is impacting efforts to end child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). Actions taken to contain the spread of the pandemic – such as school closures and movement restrictions – are disrupting children’s routines and their support systems.

    Hundreds of millions of children and adolescents will likely face increasing threats to their safety and well-being, including gender-based violence (GBV), exploitation, abuse and neglect, social exclusion, and/or separation from caregivers and friends. We know from the Ebola outbreaks and from other public health crises that adolescent girls are disproportionally affected by these emergencies. Efforts to stop the Ebola epidemics led to school closures and a loss of education; a decrease in access to reproductive health information and services; a loss of livelihoods and a contraction of social support networks. These undermine strategies to end FGM and child marriage, and threaten the progress that has been made over the past decade.

    This technical note offers a list of effects of COVID-19 on adolescenets as well as program interventions at the national and community level.

    Source: Technical Note on COVID-19 and Harmful Practices

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      Millions More Cases of Violence, Child Marriage, Female Genital Mutilation, Unintended Pregnancy Expected due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

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      The economic and physical disruptions caused by COVID-19 could have vast consequences for the rights and health of women and girls, a new analysis by UNFPA and partners shows.

      Significant levels of lockdown-related disruption over 6 months could leave 47 million women in low- and middle-income countries unable to use modern contraceptives, leading to a projected 7 million additional unintended pregnancies. Six months of lockdowns could result in an additional 31 million cases of gender-based violence.

      The pandemic is also expected to cause significant delays in programs to end female genital mutilation and child marriage, resulting in an estimated 2 million more cases of FGM over the next decade than would otherwise have occurred. These delayed programs, on top of growing economic hardships globally, could result in an estimated 13 million more child marriages over 10 years.

      These figures – produced in collaboration with partners Avenir Health, Johns Hopkins University (USA) and Victoria University (Australia) – are rough estimates. A great deal is still unknown about how the pandemic, and the response to it, will unfold around the world. But together, the projections offer an alarming view of the future that could confront women and girls if efforts are not urgently made to secure their welfare and ensure their rights.

      Source: Millions More Cases of Violence, Child Marriage, Female Genital Mutilation, Unintended Pregnancy Expected due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

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        Community-based Health Care, including Outreach and Campaigns,in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

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        Community-based health care is an essential part of primary care at all times; in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the distinct capacity of trusted community members for social engagement and delivering care where it is needed is ever more critical. This joint WHO, UNICEF and IFRC guidance addresses the role of community-based health care in the pandemic context. It includes practical recommendations for decision makers to help keep communities and health workers safe, to sustain essential services at the community level, and to ensure an effective response to COVID-19. Using this comprehensive and coordinated approach will help countries strengthen the resilience of community-based health services throughout the pandemic, into early recovery and beyond.

        Source: Community-based Health Care, including Outreach and Campaigns,in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

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          COVID-19 House to House Community Outreach Protocol

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          This protocol provides guidance to CGP-GHS Project staff on how to ensure the health and safety of community health volunteers (CHVs) and the unintentional spread of COVID-19 in the community. The need to conduct community-based surveillance and health promotion needs to be weighed against the risk of endangering either CHVs or community members while conducting house-to-house surveillance and health education and promotion activities.

          This protocol is the current position of CGP-GHS Project regarding community outreach activities in the context of COVID-19. The epidemiology of the outbreak remains unclear, and therefore the global community is relying on standard outbreak response protocol to disrupt transmission of COVID-19. Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) is cross-cutting in all areas of outbreak response but is primarily the tool to inform the public on risk and prevention measures. One of the most effective ways to communicate risk and the behavior changes that are required to prevent disease is through health education and promotion at the household level.

          Source: COVID-19 House to House Community Outreach Protocol

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            Infant and Young Child Feeding Recommendations When COVID-19 is Suspected or Confirmed

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            Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counselling in the context of COVID-19 remains a critical nutrition intervention for the protection and support of pregnant women, caregivers, and their young children. WHO and UNICEF advise caregivers and families with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to continue the recommended IYCF practices with the necessary hygiene precautions. It is therefore vital to ensure that communities and families around the world adopt these recommendations to help prevent the spread of the virus and care for those who are infected.

            UNICEF and USAID Advancing Nutrition, with the support of the Infant Feeding in Emergencies (IFE) Core Group represented by Save the Children and Safely Fed Canada, have developed a counselling package, Infant and Young Child Feeding Recommendations when COVID-19 is Suspected or Confirmed. The set includes 10 Counselling Cards and a Recommended Practices Booklet. These materials reflect the global recommendations from WHO and UNICEF (March 2020) on IYCF in the context of COVID-19 and may be periodically updated to reflect new or emerging evidence. The package provides both easy-to-understand recommended practices for counselors and user-friendly graphics that can be used with low-literacy communities in different contexts.

            Source: Infant and Young Child Feeding Recommendations When COVID-19 is Suspected or Confirmed

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              Guidance Note 3: How Can VAW Prevention Programs Adapt? : Series on Preventing VAW During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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              The COVID-19 crisis is a destabilizing time, deepening social inequalities and increasing violence against women (VAW). This is also a moment of significant unpredictability and many are experiencing fear, anxiety, and anger as a normal response to these rapid changes. Certain groups are more vulnerable to pandemic-related hardships and consequences, including women, LGBTIQ people, people living with chronic illnesses and other disabilities, people reliant on daily wages,among others. Further, within the COVID-19 response, women providing essential services—from health care provision to cleaning to vendors in the market—are particularly impacted and at risk of violence. These vulnerabilities compromise our collective well-being, as individuals, organizations, and movements to prevent VAW. We recognize –and insist—on the importance of caring for ourselves and each other during COVID-19 as a political act that is integral to our social justice activism, resisting the patriarchal norms and other systemic oppressions that value certain people over others.

              Source: Guidance Note 3: How Can VAW Prevention Programs Adapt? : Series on Preventing VAW During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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                Guidance Note 4: How Can VAW Prevention Programs Adapt? : Series on Preventing VAW During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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                COVID-19 poses many safety risks for staff, organizational partners, and community members working to prevent violence against women. For many settings, it is likely that community mobilization activities will need to be suspended or substantially adapted during this time. Before continuing with any programming, it is essential to comprehensively assess potential risks in order to determine safety and feasibility.

                Source: Guidance Note 4: How Can VAW Prevention Programs Adapt? : Series on Preventing VAW During the COVID-19 Pandemic

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                  Community-Based Health and First Aid COVID-19 Manuals

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                  Community-Based Health and First Aid (eCBHFA) volunteers are a community’s first line of defense in the midst of the global COVID-19 epidemic.  This guidance is for active eCBHFA volunteers working with vulnerable groups at the community level to help keep people safe, informed and at ease as the pandemic progresses.

                  Source: Community-Based Health and First Aid COVID-19 Manuals

                    Views 491

                    What to do if you experience symptoms of COVID-19

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                    This short wordless COVID-19 prevention animation was created for Stanford Medicine by Maya Adam MD. It is available for reposting and open access use. The video is currently being used by WHO Southeast Asia Regional Offices, the US Air Force, Canada’s National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH), the Paraguay Government Director General of Education and Communication, Seisa University, Dept. of Sociology and Public Health, Japan, the Organizing Committee of Social Action, Centrum Art-Plus Foundation, Cracow, Poland, the Vice Presidency of Education, The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Jesuit Worldwide Learning, Geneva, Switzerland and the Medical Faculty, Hasanuddin University, Makassar, Indonesia.

                    Source: What to do if you experience symptoms of COVID-19

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