Thursday, March 19, 2020

Learning in the time of COVID

During the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918-19, one advice offered to Americans was to avoid touching library books. In 2020, we are advised not to touch other people's keyboards, mice, and other electronic devices. But at least now, we can go online and enter a wide world of learning opportunities as we practice social distancing to help flatten the coronavirus curve.

Yesterday, I, along with 200+ plus other people from around the world attended ICVA's Virtual Annual Conference 2020, an event that would have been normally held in Geneva. The topic was Protecting principled humanitarian action: an honest conversation on risk. I sometimes find these discussions going in circles or not able to bridge the gap between broader frameworks (like political declarations) and field-level operational realities. But it's good to come together and try to discuss these things.

I wanted to post some questions but, still waiting to get a contract for my supposed next job, I didn't feel I am in a legitimate role to ask one. The example collaborative initiatives discussed at the last session focused on risk areas of safety, security and ethics (sexual harassment/violence). I wanted to know more about collaborative initiatives that address operational risk areas. Since we recognize that humanitarian operating environments are unpredictable and that risk is not always a negative, I wanted to ask what collaborative and principled initiatives or approaches are there for quickly identifying and maximizing unplanned opportunities to reach common objectives? How do we link these initiatives at field or operational level to larger initiatives such as political declarations and international legal frameworks?

Today, just to be informed beyond news reports and gov't announcements, I signed up for the free online course Science Matters: Let's Talk About COVID-19 -  offered on Coursera by the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease Emergency Analytics (J-IDEA) at Imperial College London. I'm also looking at the following resources:

  • The COVID-19 Learning Pathway just set up by Save the Children on Kaya/Humanitarian Leadership Academy to enable humanitarians to respond to the global pandemic. 
  • Remote Learning, EdTech & COVID-19 set up by the World Bank to support national dialogues with policymakers around the world on utilizing technology for remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lucky me. I have all this precious time on my hands (not to mention excellent internet service) and still the freedom to move around outside in the now quiet, almost deserted streets of Amman. As someone supposed to be working in the humanitarian sector, I cannot help but think of people who don't have the luxury of working from home and still earn a living or just the health workers who must go to work in hospitals to care for the sick. When gloom from the inability to do something sets in, I take a break from the screen and go for a walk. Today, I walked/run to my old neighborhood in Jabal Hussein (45 minutes each way) to look for seeds to plant in the small garden spaces of the Airbnb apartment in Shmeisani where my husband and I are staying. The nursery where I used to buy plants was closed but stores that sell food were open and I was lucky to find one that sold garden seeds too. I will dig the earth, sow the seeds and hope to watch seeds grow into plants. This always makes me happy.

In these first days of spring, rain and sunshine alternate in Amman. The air is crisp, some streets wet. The Covid-related closures definitely reduced traffic. A few people are out and about. There is a wariness about each other. We keep our distance. As a Filipino woman, I always felt strange walking long distances in Amman (a maid out and about perhaps?). It was more strange today, walking on near-empty streets otherwise busy with traffic or teeming with shoppers. But one keeps walking, not looking at anyone, but ready to offer a smile or gladly accept one when I entered the open stores. Fear and goodwill co-exists.

Back to my computer screen, I re-enter that digital world where one must exercise discipline to choose the right links to follow and the spaces to learn in. I'm ready to learn about pandemics and the basic reproduction number, phylogenetic analysis, the economics of outbreaks, etc. But it's easy to digress. I got a note from an aunt who wrote "I understand that the Millennials are referring to Coronavirus as “The Boomer Remover” but they aren’t gonna get me!" Haven't heard of that phrase before so off I go and searched for Boomer Remover. I'm 57 years old, not quite a Boomer but I kept following the links....age as a factor in pandemic fatality rates...

I'm not gonna get Covid get into my head too much. Perhaps, I should sign up for those pilates/yoga classes that I used to attend at ILI near the 4th circle but now offered via Zoom...


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