Traditional knowledge and Covid 19

Traditional knowledge has provided the basis for the  most modern knowledge systems. Traditional knowledge covers a large extent of the  activities in a typical ancient village. Traditional knowledge has been accumulated within the communities for a long period of time of their history. Such knowledge bases have been passed from generation to generation through oral communication. This knowledge base basically developed with the hand on experience of the ancient people and the daily observations on various topics. Usually , this traditional knowledge consists of the observations regarding food production, climate, medicine , irrigation,etc.  Nonetheless, most of the rural societies rely on these knowledge bases even today. For instance, primitive societies use their own healing methods using plant extractions or natural materials like soils. Similarly, the developed sectors like Ayurvedic medicine also use such plant extractions or natural components.

Therefore, scientists search possible integrations of modern and past knowledge while searching solutions for the modern day issues. In this backdrop, due to the recent Covid 19 pandemic, researchers seek solutions for the virus from such knowledge bases also. The reason for such a quick search was, the higher death count across the world during the last few months. As an example the Corona Virus Dashboard has shown the severity of the treat across the world.  Most of the sudden deaths have demanded a new quick remedy and urge to find it. As an example the death toll has been reached at 348,528 By 26, May ,2020 according to the Corona Virus Dashboard.

Therefore, research institutes like Ayurveda medical colleges and hospitals have developed some fundamental treatments to boost the immune activity against the virus and stop the symptoms of the virus based on natural materials . However, these drugs or the treatments are also not able to cure the diseases completely or find a complete solution to control the severity of Covid 19 pandemic yet..

Keeping a proper supply during Covid 19 - a real challenge.

Supply chains are under a severe threat due to the recent Covid 19 pandemic. According to the recent statistics, about 2,512,489 Covid 19 positive active cases have been reported globally. The pandemic has created a situation where people cannot work in their regular duties. This would impact badly on the supply of the most essential services like food and beverages. The supply chains have a number of places that require human intervention.

The supply chains are important in not only the local economy, but the global economy also. The supply chains simply deliver the essentials to the users and make money to the producers and service providers who are within it. However, the top most economies i.e USA has reported 1,450,366 Covid 19 positive cases which could affect its active workforce. Maintaining the regular duties in the supply chains while keeping the social distance is becoming a real challenge.
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the other hand, the replacement of labor is not easy with the machineries or other modes of electronic devices all the time. Most of the essential items like medicine, food and beverages are needed to supply without any delay to the final user. In most of the supply chains, the supplier is in a developing country or far away from its users. Most of the transportation services, courier services, delivery systems are carried out with a minimum number of people, Therefore, the management of the supply of such products is a real challenge. The health of the workers is also an important matter that needs to be considered when working in the open environment. The tiny invisible virus can be entered to the workers’ body from a contaminated environment easily. Nonetheless, this virus is long lasting on many of the substances.
Thus, sanitizing the workplaces and use of germ killers are essential to safeguard the workers. Therefore, additional efforts are required to keep these supply chains active than ever.

In a nutshell, the covid 19 pandemic has impacted on the most of the countries and it has a severe threat to keep the regular duties of people. As a result, it is evident that supply chain management has become a real challenge.

Volunteering during Covid 19 pandemic

Working without financial benefits or social benefits other than self-satisfaction are simply called volunteering. Volunteering is performed individually or by groups for many purposes. It may consider healthcare, child care, wildlife protection, cleaning the environment or any support decided by the doers. Why do most of us want to do some work without proper gains? It may be due to the extreme importance of the task or the severity of the importance of such actions.

Does Coivd 19 pandemic create such requirements? Certainly, yes. According to the statistics of the health sector, the virus has affected about 2,512,489 people globally by today. This will require volunteers in some disciplines than ever. One example is health sector. The specialized workers and tasks may not replace with the untrained volunteers. But, it was observed that retired professionals’ volunteer engagement in such specific activities in most of the countries where the Covid 19 pandemic was severe i.e Italy. Retired medical professionals reported to their duties back in search of a cure or helping to the fellow medical staffs.

In this backdrop, young inventors, billionaires, celebrities, leading scientists have come forward to help the needy people all over the world when it started to rise the death toll day by day. According to the recent data, the Covid 19 virus has spread into most of the regions of the world. Some countries like Brazil has reported 197,838 positive cases of the virus which were impacted by the virus recently than the other countries. This kind of surge of patients may require volunteers.

Volunteering is not only limited to, health sector during this pandemic situation. The contribution to other areas like health research, producing manuals on safety instructions, making awareness videos, publishing health information is also possible voluntary activities. Some NGOs and intergovernmental organizations seek such assistance from the public who are in good health to support particular activities according to the need i.e. UN volunteers. Therefore, voluntary activities which conduct online is a really beneficial task in this emergency situation.

Old practices to modern day agriculture.

Agriculture is the oldest industry of the mankind. The industry has been developed by generations of forefathers. finally, it has some repercussions due to the wrong mix of technology and inputs at present. 

The traditional community based knowledge is expressed as local , place specific knowledge. On this regard, Sri Lanka has a rice based culture and its own cultivation traditions. 

Therefore, it is time to turn back and pick the early sustainable methods from the history to mitigate the experiencing negatives of wrong doings. I contributed to the below book which explains the importance of applying early knowledge bases to modern day agriculture as a writer. 

The book contains the details of sustainable methods what Sri Lankans practiced early and its suitability to address most of the recent issues in Sri Lankan farming systems.

Contribute to a science project & Be a Community Scientist

Volunteering is not always limited to the works which can contribute with the presence of you . It is available on virtual platforms also.

If you are really passionate to help others or contribute to the scientific community, there are some opportunities to join and help leading scientists. These are called people powered research projects. Large data sets are available with these projects from various sources like telescopes, handwriting, reports of the field officers. The scientists seek volunteers' support in recognizing small objects like handwriting, a series of pictures and series of rays. These projects seek human support to cut down the operating costs and to increase the accuracy of the tasks. In these programmes , the participant will be provided a short guide to the relevant tasks. As an appreciation of the participation, some of these projects were allowed to publish the name of the contributor with the findings of the project. I.e. a project related to find dust particles of starlets by using a bulky images has offered the volunteer an opportunity to name the particle with his name. These are good opportunities to learn science and keep the desire towards the science of kids and students. I have shared a similar link that you can try and find a chance to participate in a such programme. There are many projects available related to space science, Botany, Climate change, Psychology, Physics etc.

You can try some projects here >>> https://www.zooniverse.org/#projects