“Meri Gat Pawa – Meri Gat Infomesen: Women Leading Inclusive COVID19 Response"

Via the Shifting the Power Coalition:

COVID-19 is threatening the lives of Papua New Guinea’s population with only 500 doctors and 5000 hospital beds for the country's 9 million people and many cases going undetected. With the support of the Australian Humanitarian Partnership (AHP), a new project is supporting local women leaders to reduce community transmission of COVID-19 and help protect families against the threat of the pandemic.

“I am excited about this new project and also privileged. I am looking forward to working closely with partners and other young women, especially young women with special needs. I hope that through this initiative, we change mindsets and shine a spotlight on the importance of inclusion during this pandemic,” says Helena Seneka, a project officer of the YWCA Papua New Guinea.

In partnership with Australian humanitarian organisation, ActionAid Australia, the Australian Government is funding the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation (NCfR) in Bougainville and YWCA Papua New Guinea, to drive a locally-led and inclusive response to the COVID19 pandemic across Papua New Guinea. The project will also work in collaboration with the women's network of the Papua New Guinea Assembly of Disabled Persons and aims to use SMS technology and community outreach to reach over one million people on how to prevent and respond to COVID19.  It is part of the efforts of the Shifting the Power Coalition which brings together 13 women-led organisations from across the Pacific to promote Pacific women's leadership in times of crisis.

A 3-day inception workshop was held this month to promote cross-regional learning with Coalition partners including ActionAid Vanuatu, the Fiji Disabled People’s Federation and ActionAid Australia as well as Plan International.  This resulted in the establishment of Meri Gat Pawa, Meri Gat Infomesen (Women Have Power, Women Have Information) provincial hubs in Port Moresby and Bougainville which will be the base for coordination of the project’s information and communication activities.

“The situation is serious and information is not reaching remote communities. As women leaders we have an important role to play” says Agnes Titus, the Advocacy Coordinator for the Nazareth Centre for Rehabilitation (NCfR) in Bougainville: “We see here in Bougainville that through this partnership, we are able to go another mile in addressing the situation and issues that are affecting our people here.”

The hubs will enable 15 local women leaders including young women, women with disabilities and rural community mobilisers to use their local knowledge and expertise to develop lifesaving COVID-19 health messages with an emphasis on enhancing COVID-19 awareness and prevention awareness and addressing vaccine hesitancy.  This model builds on the Coalition's existing efforts in Fiji and Vanuatu to use mobile technology to lead early warning and COVID19 prevention efforts.

Messages will be distributed in local languages via SMS through Digicel's PNG mobile phone network, which according to Titus will make a difference for communities facing a range of challenges: “NCfR is proactively trying to mitigate issues here in Bougainville and this (project) is timely because it's going to help us, sending information to the communities to deal with trending and rising issues. We are going to help and resolve some of these things because we can help not only with COVID-19 but also with issues of gender-based violence as well.”

“Women will draw on the priority issues identified through community consultations on how COVID 19 is impacting their lives and communities, including the exacerbation of pre-existing gender issues such as violence and the additional burden of care and livelihoods. These are major challenges women face which need a more comprehensive and women-led response,” says the Suva-based Regional Manager of the Shifting the Power Coalition, Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, who will be supporting the Meri Gat Pawa hubs. 

“This is exactly why we came together to establish the Shifting the Power Coalition in 2016,” says ActionAid Australia’s Executive Director, Michelle Higelin. “We are linking the experience and expertise of diverse women across the Pacific Islands to support innovative women-led crisis response. Through this initiative we’re able to resource local women’s leadership and shift the dial around gender equality and disability inclusion.”

The initiative is working closely with the PNG Department of Health’s Risk Communications and Community Engagement Committee to align with government-led public health messaging, as well as the broader Australian Humanitarian Partnership in PNG, which is working to support communities to be disaster ready.