WOKE4COVID Project: Development of Knowledge Products for Outreach, Knowledge, and Education to Raise Awareness on COVID-19 Pandemic
Introduction
COVID-19 has proven to be a real threat that challenged the stability and foundation of the country’s political, economic, and social systems. It is a threat that affects everybody, regardless of economic status, gender, age and sex. However, while a cure has yet to be developed, there are many ways to protect oneself against it – and it is imperative that all Filipinos first know how.
The University of the Philippines (UP) is obligated to serve the Filipino people both in times of peace and crisis. As the crisis worsens and with the number of cases rising day by day, the need for the university to get involved, assist the government, and inform the masses with relevant, evidence-based, and timely information has never been more important, given the high level of risk and uncertainty that COVID-19 brings. As such, the UP COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team developed the UPRI ENDCOV Program, a suite of research projects, to support current efforts in “flattening the curve” from a long-term risk reduction perspective.
Program Description
The UPRI ENDCOV Program is grounded on three interrelated pillars namely Risk Assessment, Risk Communication, and Risk Management. The Policy, Research, and Creative Work Promotion and Dissemination Project falls mainly on the Risk Communication component. The central aim of this project is to assist the Filipino people, especially policy makers, arrive at informed and science-based decisions, especially now that many forms and sources of information, verified or not, are circulating around quad-media (TV, radio, print, and social media).
The project seeks to breakdown comprehensive and technical information coming from the statements, briefers, researches, and policy notes of our Pandemic Response Team into simplified units or chunks of information. These take the form of flashcards designed by volunteer graphic artists to include visually striking and equally entertaining illustrations that will consequently enhance the learning and reading experience of the audiences.
Aside from transforming the Policy Notes into attractive infographic materials, the project aims to translate and localize these into Philippine languages (i.e. Filipino, Ilokano, Bikol Sentral, Waray Samar, Waray Leyte, Sebuano, Hiligaynon, Aklanon, Kapampangan, Itawit, Chavacano, Meranaw, and Bahasa Sug) with the help of volunteer translators to ensure that the information, education, and communication materials released by the UP-PRT will be understandable and accessible to as many Filipinos as possible. The PRCW PopDis project shall be a continuous and developing initiative to ensure constant, complementary support to existing efforts in the fight against COVID-19.
Program Objectives
The Policy, Research, and Creative Work Popularization and Dissemination (PRCW PopDis) project aims to support ongoing government and whole-of society efforts in the fight against COVID-19 by:
- Creating information, education, and communication (IEC) materials with technical reports, analyses, and recommendations pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic in the form of science- and evidence-based statements, policy notes, briefers, and research papers;
- Developing these knowledge products further by creating infographic and data visualization materials in the form of social media flashcards to aid in decision-making; and
- Translating these materials into different Filipino languages to raise public awareness, strengthen transparency and accountability, and secure public trust.
Program Components
The Policy, Research, and Creative Work Popularization and Dissemination (PRCW PopDis) project consists of two (2) interrelated components namely the Design and Layout component and the Translations component.
Team Composition
Insert a brief description on the background of the members of the team. (E.g. UPRI has pooled together UP experts from various disciplines, including mathematics, transportation planning …)