The Ministry of Education and Culture in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Indonesian Medical Students Executive Board Association and WHO held a webinar training on "Basic literacy training on Covid-19 for health volunteers" from 26 to 28 March 2020. The online course saw 200 participants join via webinar and more than 15 000 viewers stream the course through YouTube.
The Ministry Education and Culture, through the Director General of Higher Education, identified volunteers from health students nationwide to participate in the training.
The Minister of Education and Culture, Nadiem Anwar Makarim, delivered the opening remarks, appreciating the enormous support the enrolled volunteers were providing to the COVID-19 response efforts of the nation.
WHO Representative to Indonesia, Dr N. Paranietharan, also delivered remarks in which he urged the volunteers to take extra care to maintain their health during this period, and take the necessary standard COVID-19 precautionary measures such as frequent handwashing, cough etiquette, and physical distancing.
During the training on 26 March, WHO technical officers led multiple sessions including COVID-19 case management, infection prevention and control, laboratory, surveillance and risk communication.
Caption: WHO staff delivered an online training session for health volunteers on 26 March.
Photo credit: Nurhayati Kawi/WHO
The training will now be followed by on the job training for the volunteers facilitated by national and subnational staff. This field deployment will greatly contribute to the COVID-19 response. Some students will be placed in institutions such as the Ministry of Health to serve information provision (call centers), while others will be assigned to Wisma Atlit Kemayoran Jakarta to offer their technical medical skills. Further volunteers will support public communication, information and education (IEC) activities through online media.
The webinar training was delivered as part of Indonesian COVID-19 response strengthening.