Together Against Covid-19

By Lara el Sayegh

When Covid 19 occurred in Lebanon, the country was already suffering from a severe socio-economic crisis.
The lockdown measures taken by the Lebanese government to stop the spread of the coronavirus on March 15, 2020, did not address the economic situation of the informal transit system including taxis, private buses, vans drivers and operators.
It rather took the decision to stop all its operations in the country resulting in a severe loss of livelihoods for thousands of bus and van drivers who survive on a daily income.
The lockdown measures also had a negative impact on the mobility of frontline workers, not mentioning that it was not adapted to the needs of specific groups such as people with disabilities.
When lockdown measures were loose, the transit system was still suffering from low ridership due to the health risks linked to coronavirus and the lack of safety instructions and materials.
To support drivers and riders in this helpless situation facing drivers, Riders Rights started working, in cooperation with MSF, on the informal transit system.
2.      Training and PPE distribution with MSF (July 2020):
Before going on the field, it was obvious that RR’s volunteers needed to be trained by health experts, that’s how RR had an agreement with MSF who agreed to cooperate, and conducted a training on best practices for field work and generally during COVID-19 times, on July 24th 2020.
When we asked Hoda, MSF volunteer, about our collaboration she said: «  I was impressed when I learned about RR important mission to contribute to bus drivers and riders well being, and their extensive knowledge about drivers, buses and routes. »

As we attained further knowledge about the virus for the RR team, it led to the creation of a protocol for the bus system.
Then, also in partnership with MSF, RR produced and organized for 3 days in July 2020, three protocol trainings and distributed PPE equipment, including sanitizing materials and face shields, to 75 bus drivers, working on bus lines 2, 5 and 12 running through Hamra for 3 days.
Hoda noticed that «  some drivers were so concerned and interested to listen to advices, that they executed the instructions on the spot! »

Protocol flyers were also distributed to drivers and riders, and copies were placed by our team in buses and other strategic locations for maximum exposure.
Ali Hamed, a Health promoter and MSF volunteer, found that «  this kind of project should be initiated again in the future, especially nowadays, to increase drovers and riders acceptance rate for the Covid-19 vaccine. »

3.      Outreach with drivers syndicates and bus riders
We discussed with two drivers’ syndicates about their feedback on the drafted protocols, about future collaborations as well as about the potential of distributing the protocol to taxi and « services » (shared taxis) drivers.
We purchased a small quantity of PPE and received a small donation for face shields which were distributed on several occasions at the main bus hubs primarily for drivers.
For Abou Tarek, driver, it was a great experience: « I am so grateful for this useful and excellent initiative, especially for the prevention advices, and most of all the concern shown by Riders’ Rights. My colleagues and I are still talking about it months after the training, and are wishing another training is organized. »
Drivers’ packages included: textile masks and tissues to clean the bus, Drivers’ protocols flyer, Rubbing alcohol, Small chlorine and Sanitizer bottles
Riders’ packages included: a textile mask, a Sanitizer bottle and a Rider flyer.
We also designed one survey for the drivers and one for the riders and conducted by our team whilst maintaining social distance.
4.      Challenges faced during activities implementation
The Beirut explosion on 4 August once again created significant distress and disruption,  COVID-19 prevention was put aside, as many prioritized supporting people and businesses affected by the explosion, including MSF. The training was therefore put on hold, and simply continued with the distribution of the protocol with a small statement for drivers.
Due to the threat posed by COVID-19 currently, we have reduced our field team to 2-3 persons and have to conduct our survey over the phone.
According to one of our volunteers, Farah, a Landscape architect interested in the shared transit system in Lebanon, « drivers are lacking basic and essential needs like of A/C, hygiene and Corona safety measures. If we improve bus conditions, people won’t be afraid to take buses anymore. »

Early November 2020, a meeting with our contact person in Hadath Municipality was delayed as he had contracted COVID-19, followed by another nationwide lockdown.
UpdatesCurrently, we are hoping to plan with Hadath Municipality, roads stations to distribute to drivers Covid code and protocol including packages.

We will tell you about it in the next blog post! Stay tuned!

 

“Bus Line Heroes” campaign during Covid 19 lockdown measures

By Lara Sayegh

Do you know that bus operators in the Lebanese informal transportation system, as well as shared taxis (services) drivers have suffered from the lockdown, especially when the whole system has been forced to shut down? 

Check how Riders’ Rights has launched the “Bus Line Heroes” campaign to support this vital service along with the essential workers to our society, during the first lockdown.

1- Challenging context

  One major challenge witnessed during 2020, caused by the economic crisis and the Covid 19 safety and lockdown measures, was the difficulty to find a convenient way of commute.

We all know that since Covid 19 pandemic started spreading in Lebanon in March 2020, the government took the radical decision, during the first period of the lockdown, to stop all shared transportation activities on the whole territory. 

Was this decision adequate to the Lebanese context? No, because it increased the problem instead of resolving it? Simply because it affected the work of many Lebanese citizens including bus and “services” drivers and riders? 

This decision did not take into account that public transportation is considered as an essential service in any country. It is all the more vital in Lebanon, especially for essential workers who need to commute in times of crisis. Employees of the vital services such as healthcare, bakeries, grocery, cleaning and delivery workers needed to use these means of transportation simply to go and do their job considered as essential! As these workers were forced to find alternative ways to move to their workplace, nursing, cleaning, selling and delivering food became challenging.

This lockdown measure to stop all buses, vans, taxis and services without any preliminary study, added to the social and economic crisis. We saw transit drivers affected tremendously. Relying mainly on their daily income, they saw themselves deprived from their essential means of living, the ridership stopping suddenly.

2- Germinating initiatives:

   We as Riders’ rights, found ourselves concerned with these drivers’ critical situations, as they did not receive any subsidy from the State or any organization. Many organizations we knew and contacted were overloaded with huge humanitarian needs at this time, and were unable to help us compensate the drivers’ loss of their daily income. 

In coordination with the Karama initiative in Beirut, we were able to support only 5 drivers with food boxes, during the lockdown 

This seemed very little help compared to the high need and the lack of help from any other institution.

That’s how the Bus Line Heroes campaign was born!

3- “Bus line Heroes” campaign 

A- Launching details

 We asked ourselves: why don’t we launch our own initiative to support drivers? We could support them with money this time, so they will be able to buy what they need!

That’s how the idea of starting a fundraising campaign germinated and developed! Bus Line Heroes was born! 

We reached out to Train Train (a local NGO working on the revival of the trains and roads protection in Lebanon) to collaborate in this solidarity campaign as we faced banks restrictions to open bank accounts in Lebanon as an NGO.  That’s how we signed an agreement with Train Train to use their bank account for donations. 

We launched together with Seattle Transit Riders Union, a US organization that fights for everyone’s access to safe, affordable, and reliable public transit, a GoFUndMe campaign, thanks to our co-founder Jad Baaklini. That’s how we overcame the bank restrictions issue back then.

Bus Line Heroes - أبطال عالخط
Watch this video on YouTube.

We were grateful and thankful to receive 3 support videos from partners and friends.

One of our great supporters who offered us a video for the campaign was Mr. Mohamed Mezghani,  Secretary General of UITP, the International Association of Public Transport, known to be the only worldwide network to bring together all public transport stakeholders and all sustainable transport modes.

Bus Line Heroes - UITP
Watch this video on YouTube.

Thanks to The Chain Effect and to its cofounder Ms. Zeina Hawa, we were able to share their video dedicated to our campaign. This NGO promotes and facilitates cycling as a sustainable means of transport in Beirut through street art, community projects, public interventions and planning.

Bus Line Heroes - The Chain Effect
Watch this video on YouTube.

Another promotion video was offered by one of our loyal partners, Train Train, thanks to its Board member, Ms Joanna Malkun, to support our campaign. 

Bus Line Heroes - Train Train
Watch this video on YouTube.

The preparation phase for the campaign took about 20 days. As for its launching, we posted actively on social media, for more than 40 days: videos and posts were published weekly to promote the Bus Line Heroes campaign. All our team’s efforts were used to motivate as many people as possible. 

B- Our Bus Line Heroes teams

Our volunteer teams were very engaged in this initiative and took the time to do their best to make this happen. They are multi talented and driven by their motivation to support the shared transportation system and by their sense of collective interests and benefits.

  • The social media team (Amy, Rawan and Sara) organized the social media campaign on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp groups and through emails.
  • outreach team (Rashad, Sirine and Karen) contacted groups pages and influencers to share our videos
  • Adele handled the animation
  • Omar created the video and the music
  • script was brainstormed and developed in collaboration with all the team
  • translation and communication team(Tess, Manal and Sireine) 
  • output team (Manal, Hala and Sireine)  reached out drivers and facilitated the money transfer through OMT
  •  outreach team click to read more insights 

Our volunteers were satisfied to see their efforts rewarded by the driver’s smile, being grateful and thankful to this kind of support, minimal be it, but huge regarding their financial critical situation. In this crisis period, they saw riders support their partners, the bus drivers. 

C- Bus Line Heroes campaign outcome

We helped more drivers than initially targeted (20) by collecting 2169 USD and transferring it to 34 drivers in Lebanese Pounds through OMT transfer. 

This campaign showed a significant sense of solidarity from riders who supported drivers.

View the full list

We asked drivers to send to us a video or picture of them with the OMT receipt.

 

Drivers who benefit from this amount were very delighted to receive this kind of help, some of them not believing that someone was thinking of them in these difficult times.

Many drivers informed their colleagues about our work and encouraged them to contact us for support. you could support them by donating though this link

Alongside the Bus Line Heroes campaign, we could also support 20 persons by distributing 20 food boxes thanks to Foodblessed NGO: 10 for drivers and 10 to people with disabilities with the cooperation of LUPD (NGO that aims for an inclusive national, regional and international societies).

We are constantly aiming to empower the public transportation in Lebanon, to improve its services, with the cooperation of the drivers, those heroes who are the main actors and partners in this essential Sector. 

The financial crisis in Lebanon made it all the more hard for drivers to cope, so that sooner or later they won’t be able to repair their vehicles, because of the lira devaluation and the hyperinflation. This might affect the system safety and lead to the total interruption of the mobility services.

Our team is welcoming anyone, individuals or organizations, interested in helping our initiative grow, to be able to plan and launch more solidarity campaigns, as this sector is in continuous need of support to keep providing its essential services, especially that we are today having a new strict lockdown. 

Join our volunteer group on whatsapp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/KCCyxkIypNVAAj0F4B2M26

Meanwhile, we are working on a new project called “Together Against Corona”, aiming to protect drivers and riders from contracting the virus. More details will be revealed in our coming blog posts. So stay tuned!