Image Courtesy: Catholic News Agency

by Dr Abhishek Royal and Dr Marcelo Amaral Mali.

The entire world is tirelessly making efforts to stop the spread of SARS Coronavirus 2 and end COVID-19 pandemic. The sight of firefighters spraying disinfectants on roads and buildings using high pressure pump trucks or drones spraying chemicals from sky gives an extreme sense of security to most of us. The provisions of drenching people/workers who are travelling back from affected areas with disinfectants through hose pipes and strict execution of norms to use disinfectant tunnels by general public at public places and disinfectant chambers by health professionals while entering or leaving the health facility are continuously sighted in various parts of the world. read more

Photo of COVID relief activities. Image courtesy: Mx. Deepak Kulshrest

by Dr Abhishek Royal and Mx Deepak Kulshrest

The pandemic of COVID-19 has compromised every section of the society. However, the neglected and marginalized sections have received the most severe blow in this global situation.

Who is a transgender person?

‘Transgender’ is an umbrella term that includes people whose gender identity is opposite to the sex assigned to them. It may also include people who are gender non-binary, queer and individuals who are not exclusively masculine or feminine. Hijras (kinnars/ aravani) is a term in Indian subcontinent which comprises of a group of trans-women who are recognized as ‘third gender’ often bonded with unique social customs and traditions. This community is facing a serious existential crisis in current situation. read more

With the opportunity of being awarded with the WHO-TDR Postgraduate Scholarship, I am currently a student at the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia from Bangladesh. Here I am taking the international program in Public Health (MPH), majoring Implementation Research that is co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO. My stay here in Yogyakarta is almost 6,000 KM away from home and for the first time I am in overseas study leaving my only son, parents, wife and the sibling. More or less I miss my family, although that feeling is always paramount for my son. However, the recent emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact in my overseas life here. But undoubtedly, it’s a quite new and unique experience that I have been going through these pandemic days and managing my daily life independently.
Not only limited to here, all around the globe we are passing through a difficult situation in this current pandemic caused by the COVID-19. In this reality, many around us are being affected with several mental and social issues even without getting infected directly from the virus. These ultimately are believed to have contribution in affecting individual’s typical life, which consists of self-care, productivity and leisure. But true that as human being we have also the long history of facing and overcoming this kind of crisis with various potentialities.
Needless to say, these pandemic days are not like the other typical days that I passed though at the beginning in my life at Yogyakarta. All on a sudden it’s been a big change in life style that is brought by COVID-19. I used to love attending the scheduled classes at campus, joining library, meeting friends at favourite coffee shops, praying at mosque and performing compulsory outdoor exercises at the main building (Graha Sabha) campus in the evening everyday. But unexpectedly, my routine in daily life changed remarkably due to this pandemic; as on campus activities were announced to be closed. Apart from that, I was completely out of direct communication with the closed ones here in Yogyakarta, rather became dependent entirely on virtual medias. Accepting all these restrictions in day to day life and isolating myself from all kinds of social gathering was like an unimaginable reality. Due to the frequent deterioration of global and local situation, I felt down and was desperately looking for some sorts of alternative options to adjust with this sudden changing lifestyle as much as possible.
But, to be compliant with the rules of social distance at the time of COVID-19 pandemic, there is nothing better substitute other than staying at home. However, I was fortunate enough since my enrollment at UGM to have been in touch with some excellent local people at campus here in Yogyakarta. By that way, I started to be familiar with the typical tradition, culture, living and many other relevant affairs of the local community. As a consequence, commonly some of them also used to share the updates in terms of local rules and regulations regarding the pandemic via WhatsApp messages. Their virtual company was also supportive to my mental health. But still living in a new territory, isolated in a single room, managing all necessities independently, working with academic tasks; all these are not easy to handle during the global crisis of pandemic. That’s why initially I was afraid of mostly about the supply and availability of daily commodities in the local shops, as it was disrupted in many countries due to the pandemic. read more

The implementation Research Class held outbound activities on 21-22 September 2019 in Kebondalem, Prambanan, Central Java. Students from the 4th batch, program manager and staff were participated. This activity aims to introduce the daily life of rural communities in Java. This is particularly important while all students were originated from outer Yogyakarta. A good understanding of the local culture will helps students to adapt and interact with their environment.

Culture is a means to unite people and live-in events, gatherings and visit to local communities are really important to understand the native culture, develop bonding and explore a new community. The 2 days live-in event to Prambanan helped us to see the different colors of this beautiful country. We experienced different shades of Javanese and Indonesian culture, right from learning ‘Jumputan’ printings and creating beautiful prints on t-shirts, to moving our body and dancing traditionally on folk music with the village children. The trip helped us to recall that life is fun along with physical activities. Riding bicycles wearing colourful ‘caping’ hats transformed us in to Javanese people. The visit to ancient ‘Candi Sojiwan’, made us admire the unique local architecture even more.  That evening, the setting sun witnessed all of us returning back to our childhood days and  playing  various indigenous games. The hospitality provided by local people was overwhelming. Their gesture of cooking delicious food, helping us during the entire trip and providing comfort during our stay at their homes touched our hearts. We tracked up the hill top next morning to witness the red sky and beautiful sun rise. These 2 days enriched us with the local Indonesian and Javanese culture and was really helpful for us to connect with the native people in more compassionate manner. As public health scholars, we should understand the local culture and this field visit was an appropriate mixture of learning and recreation with vibrancy. (Abhishek) read more