Table 1.
Summary of community groups responses to the COVID-19 pandemic (adapted from ACHR, 2020).
| Areas of work | Examples of community action to deal with COVID-19 reported by the Asian Coalition of Housing Rights |
|---|---|
| Mapping, surveying and monitoring | Using community surveys and monitoring to track the impacts of the virus on the poor, to identify vulnerable families and individuals within the community and to determine who needs what assistance. Monitoring the impacts of government regulations and interventions, and coordinating with local government agencies to make sure those government interventions like emergency food packet distribution reach everyone, especially those most in need |
| Facilitating communication | Distributing accurate information about the virus and how to keep safe and prevent its spread |
| Delivering immediate humanitarian support | Starting food banks and buying staple foods in bulk, to distribute or to keep in storage to bolster community-level food security Setting up community kitchens and distributing meals and groceries to vulnerable and virus-infected households |
| Providing protection materials to deal with the pandemic | Stitching face masks and personal protective equipment and producing hand-sanitizers |
| Supporting isolated and quarantined communities | Keeping in touch with locked-down and quarantined communities and sharing virus news by phone, video chat and instant messaging applications like Line, Messenger and WhatsApp Promoting community-level quarantine in crowded settlements where household-level quarantine is impossible |
| Maintaining the informal economy | Developing systems for exchanging basic goods and necessities between communities or networks when the usual supply systems close down or are off limits during lockdowns |
| Providing direct support to vulnerable people | Raising funds to support specific vulnerable communities and providing cash assistance to needy families Using community savings and credit groups to help families survive and meet their families' urgent food and medicine needs, with loans and savings withdrawals, or reducing expenses by suspending loan repayments or reducing interest on loans |