Project Details
A researcher of Dhaka University Dr. Md. Anwarul Islam, Associate Professor, Department of Information Science and Library Management has been granted the ASIS&T Special Project Fund of $7000 for the year 2021-22 on the project ‘Dealing with COVID-19 and saving people’s lives in South Asia (SA) areas & beyond - A health informatics promotion project’. As a co-investigator, Dr. Islam is working with the members from 5 countries representing both Asia Pacific and South Asia regions. The project is being led by Bhakti Gala, Chair, ASIS&T South Asia, Central University of Gujarat, India with the team of members including Sam Chu (University of Hong Kong), Syeda Hina Batool (University of the Punjab, Pakistan), Helen Chan (University of Hong Kong), Raj Bhardwaj (Central University of Punjab, India), Manika Lamba (University of Delhi, India) and Prasadi Kanchana Jayasekara (University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka).
The major goals of this health informatics project are to spread awareness about COVID-19 issues and behavior, to share the experience of countries with experience of dealing with similar viruses, to help inform people by identifying pertinent topics to deal with COVID-19. highlighting the importance of reliable and accurate information, to identify and share accurate and reliable information from authoritative information to fight misinformation and disinformation regarding COVID-19 and expanding the reach of these health informational videos to people of different linguistic abilities. To achieve these objectives, South Asia Chapter of ASIS&T (Association for Information Science and Technology, USA) Chapter has set up a YouTube channel ‘ASIS&T South Asia Chapter’ to host multilingual videos for disseminating awareness on a variety of topics on COVID-19 in the South Asia region.
We have collaborated with the Asia Pacific and European Chapters to bring in their experience in dealing with similar viruses in the past. Through this channel, we propose to help in fighting misinformation and disinformation regarding COVID-19 information by citing accurate and reliable sources of information. A total of 10 videos on a wide range of topics related to COVID-19 such as, ‘Myths about COVID-19 vaccines’; ‘Stay safe from COVID1-9 without or before vaccination’; ‘Vaccine Facts: All you need to know about them’; ‘Myths about COVID-19’ and many more will be added. Of these, 4 videos have already been uploaded on the channel. Each video script has been prepared using reliable and accurate sources of information such as the WHO website, CDC website, and by referring to research-based journal articles. We will be posting regular updates about the progress of the project through the ASIS&T South Asia website, Facebook, and Twitter pages. Please subscribe to the channel and help us in sharing accurate information to fight the pandemic.
You can read more here
https://www.asist.org/2021/06/17/chapter-special-project-funds-awarded/
https://www.asist.org/chapters-saasist-blog/