Comments on: Paying lip service to Indigenous inclusion in Peru’s COVID-19 prevention campaign

By: Megan

Megan — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 04:43:00 +0000

In reply to Ally.

Hi Ally,
Yes I totally agree, culture is supposedly indispensable and has permeated in every aspects of our life. It is necessarily important to take cultural elements into account prior to making any decision that has an impact on people’s lives and habits. The decision should be consistent with their inherent philosophy and perception, otherwise compliance can hardly be followed.

Best,
Megan.

By: emme effe

emme effe — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 06:18:35 +0000

Hi Alejandra,
Thank you for this insightful article outlining the difficulties faced by indigenous people in Peru during the pandemic. On the one hand, it is admirable that the government recognised the need to reach the entire population, thus creating multilingual resources explaining safety procedures against COVID-19. As the article about Indonesia highlighted, this is not always the case for all governments around the world. In both cases, the communication strategies adopted by the two governments failed to acknowledge and take into account the realities some of their citizens live in and related challenges (e.g., lack of running water, low level of literacy) creating a discrepancy between expectations and reality. In Australia, I have noticed a similar attempt by the Australian government in creating informative resources in a variety of languages. In particular, I appreciated the effort of the government of NT providing such information in Aboriginal languages through various channels (audio, video, printed). Indeed, the question remains: how easy is it for these groups to access such information?

By: Ingrid Ulpen

Ingrid Ulpen — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 14:20:24 +0000

Thank you for your article, Alejandra. The situation in Peru has parallels with the Northern Territory of Australia where Covid-19 information in print, audio and video format is available in eleven of the hundred or so Indigenous languages spoken.

A third of the population is Indigenous; sociopolitical factors since colonisation have created markedly poorer health than among non-Indigenous Australians. Approximately 10% of the Territory’s population live in overcrowded housing where physical distancing is impossible. A quarter of Indigenous people live in very remote areas where health services beyond very basic facilities are difficult to access, overcrowded housing is particularly common and water supply may be restricted.

The disconnect between public health advice and a community’s means to put it into practice is evidently a global problem.

By: Ingrid Ulpen

Ingrid Ulpen — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 13:05:11 +0000

In reply to Ingrid Piller. Please excuse me for using this platform to vent, but I agree: when I heard that comment on the evening news broadcast, it stopped me in my tracks. "To put things in perspective" is a phrase that may be used in discussions between people to help someone move from an overly personal view and consider the needs of others. In my experience, it is associated with people being pro-social. Using it this way is a perversion, in my view knowingly chosen by a politician to access the public's positive associations in the service of their own agenda.

By: Zoe

Zoe — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 01:15:57 +0000

In reply to Ingrid Piller.

Thank you for your feedback and your correction, Ingrid.
Since the government has created plenty of opportunities for the minorities in Vietnam to go to school, the language barrier is not much of an obstacle anymore. I almost forgot the existence of other languages in the Vietnamese community because over 95% of the Vietnamese population aged 15 and older are literate. Specifically, Vietnam has run the “Xóa đói mù chữ” (The eradication of illiteracy) campaign which Vietnamese – the national language, is taught widely around the country since 1945.
Besides, the government has done a great job in transferring the Covid-19-related information to the ethnic communities in Vietnam by simplifying the message, enhancing its effectiveness in preventing virus transmission in these areas. That’s why these communities are able to prevent and “extinguish’ any outbreaks. Ironically, despite having such effective prevention campaigns in the rural areas, the government has failed to deliver similar information to the urban cities, resulting in the current outbreak in Vietnam.
I hope Ingrid’s feedback and my explanation can help you understand more the context in my home country.
Thank you.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 23:25:01 +0000

In reply to Ally.

Thanks, Ally! The lack of empathy on all levels is mind-boggling and heart-breaking. I’ve just seen a video of the NSW Premier during yesterday’s press conference saying “Death is horrible but we need to put things in perspective …” the “perspective” was that people in NSW can’t choose how to use their free time …

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 23:17:46 +0000

In reply to Zoe. Thanks, Zoe! Just one little correction: Vietnam recognizes 53 minority languages and ethnic group, in addition to the majority Kinh people.

By: Ally

Ally — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 14:30:15 +0000

In reply to Megan. Hi Meghan Yes its really confounding how so many governments globally forget to take into consideration the cultural norms of their own citizens. Some of us who live in the city so often live in a "bubble" and forget to visualise and have practical compassion for the everyday lives of those in rural areas living more traditional lifestyles. Hopefully things will change over time through appropriate education.

By: Ally

Ally — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 14:23:29 +0000

Thanks Alejandra for this fantastic insight into the Peruvian Indigenous community. It illustrates clearly the “bubble” so many of us live in and the lack of empathy or even the desire so many have to really understand and have compassion for those who may be poor or disadvantaged such as in so many Indigenous communities around the world. It is interesting that considerable effort was made to translate the information, which may have alleviated the conscience of those doing this important work of formulating and distributing essential public health communications. However, the lack of either knowledge or consideration about the real-world practical application of these messages, or both, is so common globally. In Canada this problem is being solved by encouraging interested members of the Indigenous communities to get a higher education through providing funding for fees, to participate in government by holding federal government positions and through self-governance, and by the creation of 34 federal departments responsible for meeting the obligations and commitments to our First Nations, Metis and Inuit populations. It’s far from perfect but it’s slowly improving over time.

By: Ally

Ally — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 13:55:09 +0000

In reply to Tammy.

Hi Tammy
Wow that sounds so stressful and counterproductive for people’s physical and mental health. I’m so sorry to hear what happened. sadly this seems to be the norm in so many communities around the world. Government workers may have the best of intentions but often really don’t think through the real world practical application of their advice. So often the vulnerable in the population suffer the most like older or disabled people who can’t manage shopping in a huge crowd. I hope things are going better now.
Take care,
Ally

By: Zoe

Zoe — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 12:58:43 +0000

Despite the impracticality of Covid-19 guidance (i.e., prevention posters) in Peruvian rural areas, I highly admire the effort made by the Peruvian government. This is mainly because they considered multilingualism as one key factor when making their guidance to help Peru’s Indigenous community protect themselves against the Coronavirus. However, in another multilingual country, the Indonesian villagers in Hidayat’s blog post faced the spread of Covid-19 due to language barriers. The Indonesian government ignored multilingualism in their country because they only provided monolingual Covid-19-related information. Similarly, Vietnam experienced some literacy problems when approaching Covid-19-related orders despite not being a multilingual community. A new stay-at-home restriction introduced without interpretation within 24 hours caused the citizens’ confusion and misunderstanding. Hence, some people acted upon their interpretation, which led to several fines for rule-breaking and threatened the safety of the community.

By: Tammy

Tammy — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 11:50:20 +0000

Reading this blog post reminds me of the similar situation happening in the Southern Vietnam so far. In order to stop the spread of COVID-19, the government has enacted the long-term city-wide curfew for severe stay-at-home order. However, the announcement was officially published two days before the execution day and no shipping services will be allowed afterwards. Consequently, in those last days of ‘freedom’, all the supermarkets and pharmacies were full of people rushing to buy essential goods regardless the social-distancing protocol and the number of COVID-1 cases, accordingly, increases every day. That is to say, the reality is totally against the curfew’s purposes and demonstrating for the ineffective pandemic prevention.

By: Megan

Megan — Sun, 29 Aug 2021 07:16:54 +0000

I would agree that launching a campaign or providing a message that suits all people’s lived reality is always a matter of concern. In my country, Vietnam, practicing social distancing could be more plausible and actionable in urban areas yet not viable in rural areas. This is because the city siders tend to live separately in their own households while those in the countryside highly imbue the deep-rooted collectivism. That is to say they are inherently used to living in close-knit group and community, people take care of each other, an individual’s business is everyone’s concern. Therefore, they can hardly do things in isolation and maintain a two-meter distance on the daily basis.

By: Vatnak

Vatnak — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 10:13:22 +0000

Hi,
I would agree that the lack of access to basic services and telecommunications are the biggest challenge to the COVID-19 prevention campaign. For example, because my country is a developing country, we tend to have limited access to those services in our rural areas and in the slum areas in the city. However, the government normally use the old method of spreading information like making announcements near the markers or use the vehicle to travel around and announce the important message to the people. Moreover, the government also urges the community chiefs to visit the people in those areas to inform them about the situation.
Cheers,

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 19:15:57 +0000

In reply to Jay. Interesting you say that. The findings of this researcher - about COVID-19 public health communication in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province - suggest quite the opposite ...

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 08:41:46 +0000

The communication related to Covid was not a major problem in Pakistan. Although a number of people do not have access to basic life necessities, most of the people in the country can speak English and Urdu. In the beginning, the information was given in Urdu and English. Most of the pamphlets are written in both languages. If we check the statistics, we can understand that the actual problem is the poor legislation system and ignorance which resulted in major hike of the viral cases. The government website about the Covid shows the details information in major languages of Pakistan. (Urdu is understood in most parts of Pakistan)

https://covid.gov.pk/guideline