The entire world at this moment is in a very difficult situation. The Covid19 pandemic has put the lives of millions of health care workers at risk for the benefit of us. The pandemic has already driven the global economy into recession. A social recession is also marked by growing loneliness and isolation due to the shutdown measures adopted by the government. Economic shut down could be recovered but the social recession that is going to happen is a scale, will be hard for the society to deal with. Various reports have already cited the high possibility different age groups being affected socially, mentally and psychologically.

The fact that the older people and also those with underlying health conditions are more vulnerable to COVID-19, can be extremely frightening. The psychological impacts for these populations may leads to anxiety and feeling stressed or angry. Some older people are already socially isolated and experiencing loneliness which can worsen their mental health.

According to UNESCO, 300 million children are missing school globally due to the current virus outbreak. Children are likely to be experiencing worry, anxiety and fear, and this can include the types of fears that are very similar to those experienced by adults. If schools have closed as part of necessary measures, then children may no longer have that sense of structure and stimulation that is provided by that environment, and now they have less opportunity to be with their friends and get that social support that is essential for good mental well-being.

As the COVID-19 pandemic deepens economic and social stress coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures, gender-based violence is increasing exponentially. Domestic and sexual violence against women has been in rise in many parts of the world as reported already.

At this point of time, our productive and mutual engagement could help organising the society where we would be developing more fellow feeling, more concern for the common people and more importantly concern for our planet. In this context, a dedicated platform (under Paradise of Change) is prepared by a group of experts to discuss the questions, issues and challenges of those who are likely be affected in this trying time. The objective of floating this idea is to strengthen the emotional immunity of the population who are directly or indirectly affected by the pandemic. The issues/questions raised by the persons will be clubbed together and dealt with experts and the response against those will be posted in this platform as well.

We sincerely request you to write the issues/challenges faced by you very clearly in this trying time by the email changeparadise@gmail.com

Thanking you

The Paradise of Change Team