Community Leaders of Facebook

Monthly Meet-up of Community Leadership Circles Islamabad Chapter

(Photo Credits: M.Z Productions & Photography)

It is heart-warming to see many individuals being serious about community development and uplift. Thanks to various social media platforms, participating in community development activities is not limited to social workers of NGOs now.

This generation of online activists, Facebook thinkers, online entrepreneurs, trolls, YouTube comedians, and Twitter politicians may have their flaws and failings but they have also managed to renew and improve the civilian responsibility towards active community participation. Among many attractions and monetisation benefits of having an active presence on social media community work continues to remain popular not because it promises loyal followers, likes and shares but because it creates a deep ripple effect and makes community work doable and accessible for others.

Online campaigns such as tree plantation, clean drives, financial assistance, free food distribution, justice for victims of abuse, violence, rape and corporal punishment are some of the popular issues sensitized through dedicated pages, groups and viral videos made by online activists and/or online influencers. Since the last couple of years some of these campaigns (in the form of viral hashtags, mobile videos, CCTV recordings, screenshots) were taken up by law enforcing agencies to catch the offender while others sparked social debate and support. However, most of these made way to optimistic vibes, they instigated the sense of responsibility rather than blame, the sense of positivity rather than criticism and the sense of human ethics rather than religious divide. That was where the seeds of community ownership-leading-to-development sprouted.

Food distribution drives increase each year, acceptance regarding mental illnesses have led patients to seek out help and get treatment, tree plantation drives are now being endorsed nationally and victims of abuse and violence are being shown mass support through viral hashtags and posts. In short, these powerful campaigns bring hundreds of like-minded people together. It also brings diverse people together to form small groups and circles and work towards community development. It is making negativity, injustice, bullying and shaming disrespectful and intolerable.

The fact is that we are raising a breed of generation that will be aware, will speak-up against injustice, will be socially responsible and willing to help to make a difference. Taking this empowered awareness to the next level, social media giants have started endorsing and promoting such online activities and bringing such citizens offline.

Such is the power of social media and utilizing this empowered awareness Facebook’s Community Leadership Program is providing a platform to online community leaders to become influencers and change makers. This program has removed taboo around many social and domestic issues and made them accessible and acceptable to talk about.

Another initiative by Facebook, Community Leadership Circles is more focused around creating city leaders. A city lead brings city admins of Facebook groups together and impart the leadership in the form of holding talks and activities around issues that are close to that city group. The idea is to provide opportunity to members to speak on a topic that is close to their heart. In a way, Community Leadership Program is a knowledge sharing hub. A hub that keeps on updating with every comment and post being uploaded. A hub that is preparing future leaders who in turn can lead their communities.

Dwindling Health care in Sindh

During one of my visits to Sindh, I was perturbed to see the health care situation of the districts. I talked with district health and nutrition managers, visited basic health units and sat with local communities and came to a conclusion that the plague of corruption, political pressure and lack of accountability has spread deep into the governing body of the province.

The political monopoly of leading parties in Sindh has done little to fix health crises of the province. The province lags behind the rest of the country in health indicators in spite of increased budget allocation of 26% in 2017-18 over last year’s allocation. However, the district health situation still presents a grim picture. The improvements though present are so small and unnoticeable that they can barely help to elevate health standing of the province. The district health representatives as well as the health care providers share endless rants about obstacles in service delivery. The obstacles that include corruption, political interest, lack of human resource and irregularities in purchase of medicines and vaccines.

The budget allocated Rs 2.4bn for the Lady Health Worker (LHW) Programme, with the deployment of more than 2,100 LHWs. The Sindh Immunization Support Program was allocated Rs 8.09bn while Rs 690.14 million was allocated for strengthening and expanding the Extended Programme for Immunisation [1]. The district level data indicates that a vast area is still uncovered due to which one LHW has to cover the population of 2-3 union councils. Therefore, a substantial portion of population remains unaware about health promotion, routine immunization and vaccination. Continued irregularity in salaries has curbed the enthusiasm of extension workers. The role of LHWs in informed decision regarding health and nutrition of family is influential but the capacity building and field monitoring of LHWs need serious review as there is lack of uniformity in messages promoted by LHWs (I met some LHWs in Nausheroferoz who emphasised the benefits of giving goat milk to a new born rather than mothers feed).

Shortage and unequal distribution of trained staff and doctors at primary and tertiary health care facilities is another factor that restricts service delivery. This shortage is caused by unavailability of educated and trained human resource as well as preference for working in major cities.

Accountability lacks at district level primarily due to political affiliations and peer pressure. The district authorities are well aware about false reports of extension workers and monitoring visits and misquoted coverage figures of routine programmes. Still they are more inclined towards keeping pace with politically affluent and less bothered to bring transparency and accountability in to the system.

The province faces constant threat of health emergency due to food deficiency. Malnutrition in Sindh is still strong despite of all aids, grants, accelerated action plan and community outreach programmes. The province faces acute nutritional deficiency in districts of Tharparkar, Umerkot, Badin, Sanghar and Jaccobabad. The situation is not good in other districts as well and needs urgent and sustainable treatment.

According to the National Nutrition Survey (2011), Sindh has the prevalence of wasting at 19%, underweight at 40% and stunting at 26% [2]. The Multi Indicator Cluster Survey (2014) for Sindh found out that 72% of households were food insecure [3].

Poverty, frequent births, early marriages, anaemic mothers and poor food choices are some of the reasons for alarming rise in malnutrition and stunting in the region. High nutritional diet does not appear frequently on food tables of middle to low income households - the daily-wagers group. Health is not a priority and nutritional deficiency among women and children is seldom taken seriously and goes unnoticed until it becomes chronic. It is vital to promote food sufficiency through kitchen gardening and educate communities about benefits of foods that are high in iron and other micro nutrients (the most common food items were found to be biscuits, tea and potatoes).

The Sindh Government with assistance from the World Bank conceived a multi-sectoral project to combat stunting and malnutrition in the province. The project brought various departments like health, agriculture, livestock and fisheries, planning and development, population, welfare, education etc. under the umbrella of an ‘accelerated action plan’ to ultimately improve nutrition at the core. An allocation of Rs 1bn per year was fixed through the development fund. The project aimed to target districts where the stunting rates are above 30%. A provincial stunting task force has been constituted for strategic guidance and policy direction and commitments have been made but the progress on these is still awaited. The future of Sindh Health care Commission also seems uncertain despite four years since the bill was passed.

A party that has been governing the province for the last decade, maintains a large vote bank, and claims Sindh as its center of power, one wonders why it has failed to uplift its health sector. The province is in dire need of a health system that strengthens the health synergies and caters to the entire population, however it seems that its favourite leadership has not still realised the core problems that threaten its people. It is high time that it place nutrition at the forefront of their party agenda and bring accountability and transparency in public health system and health workforce.

Links:
1.
http://fdsindh.gov.pk/site/userfiles/Budget%202017-18/BUDGET%20SPEECH%202017-18/BUDGET%20SPEECH%20ENGLISH%202017-18.pdf

2. Key Findings of National Nutritional Survey 2011

3. Integrating Nutrition into Food Security and Livelihoods Interventions for Emergencies

Cyber Bullying and Harassment

(Image Source: 1)

Cyber bullying has become a favourite pass time for people. Social media tweets and posts provide easy weapon for every tom, dick and harry to judge, bash and harass the victim. The victims of cyber bullying are often famous personalities and celebrities who maintain an active social life on twitter, facebook and instagram. Talk about Malala, Gulalai, Mahira Khan, and more recently Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy!

In a society like ours women become easy targets of cyber bullying but what is worrisome here is not the bullying itself or the character targeting of victims in question. Actually, the point of concern here is the pattern of opinions and thoughts that continues to emerge from this online blaming and shaming. It reminds us that this society in spite of all its efforts towards progressive moderation and empowerment of women through education and rights, still stands confused and divided over issues that concern women at large.

(Image Source: 2)

Women like Malala and Sharmeen have some loyal haters in Pakistan who go to any extent to accuse and doubt them at every step and at every forum. While it is perfectly fine to have difference in opinion regarding an issue but bullying women who have stood up for girls’ education and spoken out against sexual harassment speaks a great deal about where we stand as a society and presents a bitter reality of disbelief, distrust and doubt that women face in our society each day.

Sharmeen Chinoy's latest episode about harassment spread like wildfire and incited outpour of hateful comments that not only blamed her for using her celebrity power against an ‘innocent doctor and father of four kids’ but also questioned her sisters clothing, making the harassment look 'well deserved' and 'invited'. Amidst all this debate, the actual crime got lost and appeared as innocent as a mere Facebook request that could have been easily ignored.

Lets face the truth, violation of code of conduct and unethical breach of patients’ right by a qualified doctor at a time of emergency is a crime by every book.

For those who are debating whether sending facebook request was a sexual harassment this violation itself proves that Sharmeen’s sister was not treated as just a medical subject but as a female and her sexuality became the point of interest to the doctor rather than her ailment hence it was a sexual harassment by every definition. Others who blame Sharmeen for using her celebrity status over a minor issue that cost the innocent doctor his job should learn that he not only broke the ethical code but also trust of all other female patients and staff. A harasser should never go around uncharged. A similar tweet or even complaint from some common women would never have sparked this much attention and indeed it is this attention that will educate men and women to differentiate between a medical examination and other and speak up whenever they feel that their trust has been violated.