Webinar Series Explores Community Engagement During COVID-19 and Beyond

COVID-19 is an unprecedented global public health crisis that has exposed and compounded the inequalities experienced by vulnerable communities the world over. For these communities and the organizations that partner with them, social distancing has further complicated meaningful engagement — the cornerstone of any successful pandemic response.

In the seventh edition of our ‘COVID-19: Ask the Experts’ webinar series on May 20, we explored what it means to build trust and design and implement policies that respond to community needs with limited face-to-face contact. This included sharing some of the creative solutions community organizations are employing to stay connected and effective during the pandemic. As one webinar speaker aptly explained, “Social distancing is a joke for a sex worker.”

Speakers included:

• Prashanth N. Srinivas, medical doctor and public health researcher, Institute of Public Health – Bengaluru
• Meena Seshu, founder, Sampada Green Mahila Sansthan (SANGRAM) – Sangli
• Yvette Alta Raphael, additional executive director, Advocacy for Prevention of HIV and AIDS – South Africa
• Vivek Anand, CEO, The Humsafar Trust – Mumbai

Our partners in this webinar series are India Alliance, Nature India, and the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute.

Watch the replay below, and view all episodes on our YouTube channel.

Visit IAVI’s COVID-19 hub for more: www.iavi.org/covid-19.