When we talk about the efforts of Jeddah Health in combating the Corona virus (Covid-19), and educating the people of the governorate and the various communities, we will not overlook the great role that the Head of the Awareness and Education Department in Jeddah Health, Dr. Amira Badkhun, played.
She stormed the neighborhoods that are forbidden to enter and exit from, and which are registered with the epidemic at the level of the Kingdom, with awareness and education, and she led health teams inside the neighborhoods with 300 volunteers, both male and female.
Working in the midst of the epidemic was not easy, but it did not discourage her from presenting her role and ensuring her safety and the safety of her team, which recorded all kinds of heroism and sacrifice in order to spread awareness to those who are ignorant of it.
Amira Bakkhun, whom her colleagues call the “awareness icon”, has not stopped until the moment since the month of Rajab last year (the beginning of the total curfew), and until now she is leading the team tirelessly. She started in the slums in the south of Jeddah Governorate, completed it and then set off. To commercial complexes and tourist and economic cities.
The medical teams continue their awareness work under the supervision of the General Directorate of Health Affairs in Jeddah Governorate, represented by the Health Awareness Department. More than 300,000 beneficiaries have benefited from this campaign so far, in addition to conducting about 12,000 thermal examinations for expatriate workers in the southern neighborhoods of Jeddah.
The head of the Health Awareness Department at Jeddah Health, Dr. Amira Bakhkhan, said that the teams are still carrying out their duties in Jeddah Governorate and its affiliated centers, with the participation of more than 300 volunteers daily working through 43 health teams, with the participation of security men and the Jeddah Municipality.
Awareness of loudspeakers
Badukhan indicated that the campaign finally started with field health awareness in the markets that are located in slums through vehicles equipped with loudspeakers and a work team that speaks several languages to deliver health messages around homes and popular markets to urge them to social divergence, adhere to home quarantine, and not go out except for extreme necessity. This initiative is in cooperation with the Call and Guidance Association.
These neighborhoods include many nationalities, including Burmese, Nigerian, Chadian, Senegalese, Sudanese and Pakistani, and the campaign personnel communicate the information through a special translator in the language in which the community is located in the targeted neighborhoods, and the translator changes according to the target location daily, and people from the communities living in the same neighborhood are usually recruited To be visited, in coordination with the community supervisors for their field trips with the survey teams voluntarily, including field guides and translators for the existing communities.
The Director of Health Awareness added that Jeddah Health is still applying more field precautionary requirements and going to slums, which is one of the most important aspects of combating the virus, and we are working to raise awareness of the most important ways to prevent corona virus, in addition to population survey, detection and transfer of cases that require that, also from The most important means of prevention and for the safety of the residents of those neighborhoods is adherence to home isolation, and respect for the regulations by not moving around except for extreme necessity, stressing the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ keenness that health comes first and that treatment is available free of charge to all, regardless of the regularity of residence, and in the event of symptoms appearing, inquiries and communication with the number “937” are made. .
Bakkhun indicated that all residents were pleased with our presence beside them and their high response to our health messages, and this was evident through their cooperation with us in facilitating the task of the teams, and that many of them went to the field voluntarily for interpretation, and that there were more than 60 volunteers, praise be to God who benefited from the campaign.
She explained that the field teams numbered 34 teams, pointing out that we must apply all instructions issued by the health authority to preserve our lives and the lives of others, and indicated that general hygiene must be maintained in a large way, and, God willing, this affliction will be removed from us.
Hussein Hazazi (Jeddah) @h_hzazi