Utilizing social media technology during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist highly vulnerable populations in the Philippines

Abstract

National lockdowns and social distancing measures enforced in response to COVID-19 have forced many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) serving in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to suspend their operations. While low-income families continue to suffer from hunger and poverty, community quarantine restrictions additionally isolated them from town centers where healthcare, education, food, supplies, and livelihood opportunities are usually accessed. International Care Ministries (ICM) is a Philippine-based NGO that runs a poverty-alleviation program targeted towards extreme low-income households. As we re-evaluated how we may continue to effectively minister and serve our communities despite lockdown measures, we identified two priorities: (1) to serve people’s physical needs by providing food and access to healthcare, and (2) to serve people’s spiritual needs through spiritual feeding and community. In this field report, we describe how ICM was able to identify and use social network platforms as an alternative to continue both service delivery and spiritual feeding remotely. We hope this example may encourage other development NGOs to persevere as we all continue to seek ways to adapt to these extraordinary and seemingly ever-changing circumstances.

Impact of COVID-19 on marine fisheries supply chains: Case study of Malaysia

“…Food distribution and marketing can be made more efficient by improving digital connectivity in Malaysia, especially in rural areas. A study by Go et al (2020) and the survey result of this paper has proved that Internet technology and social media platforms can be used as effective methods for responding to a range of disaster and crisis situations like the COVID-19 global pandemic. With better connection and good implementation of the Internet of Things (IoT), food security issues in the future can be mitigated more effectively.…”

“…4.1.3 Discussion paper 3: Utilizing social media technology during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist highly vulnerable populations in the Philippines Go et al (2020) found that Internet technology and social media platforms can be used as effective methods for responding to a range of disaster and crisis situations like the COVID-19 global pandemic. Access to healthcare, education, food, supplies, and livelihood affected the extreme low-income families through quarantine restrictions far from town centers.…”

“…The paper was published as a full-length article with a total of 26 authors from 8 countries with the WorldFish as a leading affiliation for the survey. A total of 778 respondents responded to the survey Elsi et al (2020) used mapping analysis to assess the mean cost per capita expenditure regarding people's needs for foods during the Philippine people and used social media networks to as an alternative platform to continue their service and deliver feeding remotely during the global COVID-19 pandemic (Go et al, 2020). The field report prepared as a collaboration between the ICM team and researchers from Canada started their online services in April 2020 after the implementation of strict lockdown and community quarantine in March 2020.…”

“…COVID-19 can affect food supply chains, especially the fisheries supply chain and resources, at local to global scales. Previous studies have found that the pandemic has affected the food industry supply chain in other Southeast Asian countries such as Myanmar (Belton et al, 2021), Indonesia (Elsi et al, 2020;Layona and Yulianto, 2021;Paganini et al, 2020;Rozaki, 2020;Widi et al, 2021), the Philippines (Go et al, 2020), and Thailand (Wannaprasert and Choenkwan, 2021). Studies on the impact of COVID-19 on marine fisheries resources and supply chain are limited.…”