Youth organisation disinfecting public transport in capital
Bidyanondo Foundation, a voluntary organisation working primarily for education of underprivileged children, yesterday started spraying disinfectants in public transports as a preventive measure against possible spread of novel coronavirus.
Six volunteers of the foundation sprayed disinfectant-mixed water inside some 30 buses and 15 human hauliers at Mirpur-11 bus stand in the capital, said Salman Khan Yessin, Dhaka branch head of the organisation.
"Public transport is one of the risky places for infection of coronavirus. So, we have sprayed disinfectants at different parts of vehicles where people touch frequently," he told The Daily Star last night.
"We are doing this as a public service. We actually want that authorities will come forward to the same thing for people's safety," he said. Amid new cases of the virus being confirmed every day in the country, authorities have asked people to avoid crowds and public transports as a precautionary measure. However, a huge number of people depend on public transportation like bus, minibus and CNG-run auto-rickshaws, for their dailycommute.
Salman said they have installed six sinks in front of their office in Mirpur a week ago, so that people can wash their hands.
"Today, we saw DNCC [Dhaka North City Corporation] mayor installed hand-washing facilities in different parts of the city. We hope the authorities would also take steps to disinfect public transports," he said.
The organisation will continue their campaign today starting early in the morning, he said, adding that they would set up water drums at different points as hand-washing facilities, he added.
Bidyanondo is being run by 40 officers and hundreds of volunteers, whose mission is to foster philanthropy domestically and internationally by designing innovative and inspiring programmes, according to its official website.
The foundation has garnered praise for various initiatives in the past, most recently for recycling laminated election posters used during Dhaka City Corporation elections.
The flipside of the posters was turned into notebooks, while the plastic was used to pack clothes and made into strings to bind food packets, they said. They had collected more than 1 lakh posters dungi the campaign.
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