Summary
Shakthi, an NGO working in Trincomalee District, successfully linked the Ministry of Health (MOH) to a number of students who due to the pandemic could not work or study, but were willing to volunteer. The Red Cross offered the students training, after which they could assist with the Ministry of Health's vaccination campaign.
Problem analysis
The Ministry of Health (MOH) was badly understaffed due to the COVID-19 situation. They needed more staff to look after people with COVID-19, but also for the vaccination campaign that had to be organised and implemented. For a number of tasks they were also looking for volunteers.
At the same time most of the youth could not work or study. They were just hanging about and playing games.
Solution analysis
Chathu, Shakthi’s founder, saw opportunities to mobilise young people for some social activities. She had after all done the Mobilising Support course of Change the Game Academy and realised that this would be a good time to use the tools she had acquired. She approached both the inactive boys and girls and the MOH and managed to link them together. The problem was: how to provide some support (also financially) for these new MOH volunteers? A local NGO consortium guided her to the local Red Cross. After hearing her elevator pitch, they decided to help. Although they did not have a lot of money available, the Red Cross did give the volunteers a three-day training and provided them with a letter explaining their work, which allowed them to move during the pandemic (which for others was very difficult).
Their duty was to prepare for the vaccination campaign. They found out who were the 60 year olds who were to be vaccinated and made lists of them. They prepared them to get ready for the injection and helped the ones that could not read and write, to fill in the necessary forms and put those into a database.
One of the Change the Game Academy trainers had explained how to link LFR and MS together, which is what was successfully done in this case.
Stakeholder analysis
Which stakeholders (NGO’s, government, private sector) did you identify as allies and how did you involve them?
Ministry of Health (MOH), idle students, local NGO consortium, Red Cross.
Their involvement took shape mainly through personal conversations with Chathu, who had also prepared an elevator pitch about her plan that was well received by all.
Short description of the organisation implementing the action/campaign
The organisation started in 1999. Its main aim is to help women to improve their situation. Their area of operation is Trincomalee District.
