Army of student volunteers encounter willing participants

Citizens were pleasantly surprised at the high level of professionalism displayed by student volunteers from the University of the West Indies as they carried out surveys that will set the tone for wide-scale COVID-19 testing.

On the other hand, the initiative is revealing the extent to which Barbadians are skeptical about receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. This is one of the questions contained in the questionnaires and as Barbados TODAY traversed the constituency of Christ Church West Central, it was clear that citizens want more information before receiving the jabs.

Kareem Grant, student supervisor for a group of 11 students, on Thursday revealed his team had encountered some minor challenges with the mobile application being used to enter citizens’ information. However, by the mid-morning period, they began a six-hour journey through Silver Hill, Kendall Hill, Kingsland and Gall Hill under the protection of Lance Corporal Zikomo Cozier of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF).

There, the group posed a number of “ basic” questions relating to the state of citizens’ health, household arrangements and recent contacts as well as specific queries relating to dengue.

“So far, we haven’t had any issues. At all the houses we went to, people were willing to cooperate with us and give us information,” he told Barbados TODAY.

While expressing a keenness to give back to his community, Grant admitted for many, the 11-day project is a major sacrifice at the beginning of a new semester.

“Given the fact that I am a UWI student, it is not going to be the easiest, because in addition to coming out here every day, I still have to go home and study and get up-to-date with classes,” he explained.

At Silver Hill Road, resident Cecilia Edwards described the project as “extremely important” in the midst of COVID-19 community spread.

I think we need these kinds of questions and this kind of testing,” she told Barbados TODAY.

Her neighbour, Nichole October agreed and praised the initiative taken by the army of youth.

“I think it is really, really good what they are doing and I am very satisfied. I am not a Barbadian and honestly I feel that my country [Guyana] should do this, because it is really necessary,” October explained.

Next door, Janice Howell praised the programme, noting that after using public transportation to and from work over the last few weeks, it is especially important to participate.

“Leaving home is a risk and I have to catch a public service vehicle and you don’t know who has it, so you have to be cautious and therefore this is a very good thing the government is doing to find out what is going on,” she explained.

On the issue of a vaccine, however, their sentiments were different and they made this clear when questioned about it in the survey.

“I am not comfortable about it because it is something that just came up. Have they really tested it thoroughly and what problems will you encounter afterward? I don’t know, so I am not comfortable with that right now,” said Edwards, who said a family member in England who had taken the jab, still contracted the infectious virus.

“I think we should wait and find out whether people from overseas come down with complications as a result of taking it. Maybe a couple months down the line, I might say okay, but right now I am not comfortable with it,” she added.

Howell meanwhile refused to say “yes or no” to the vaccine because she did not have much information about it.

“I am not going to say yes and I am not going to say no, but I have to be more educated on it, because you are seeing a lot of different videos and hearing a lot of different stories so I have to learn more about it before I can take it,” she explained.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)