COVID-19: Volunteers in Dili help disinfect cars and buildings in great show of community solidarity

Dili (Lusa) - Every day, in the morning and in the afternoon, a growing group of volunteers from the Tasi Mos Movement, Timor-Leste's main environmental organization, takes to the streets with sprayers to help disinfect cars and buildings in the Timorese capital.

“We started with just 10 people and now we are 30. And more and more people, from the community, are helping us with the materials, equipment, and donations”, shared Gally Soares Araújo, the main ‘voice’ of the Tasi Mos Movement (MTM).

The initiative started about three weeks ago, even before the country entered a state of emergency, with a small team working on the main streets of the city and offering free disinfection spray to the interior and exterior of cars.

The initiative gained momentum and more volunteers joined, among them is Mariano Sabino, President of the Democratic Party (PD) who joined in to help spread the word and support this great community work.

Gally Araújo explains that with the imposition of state of emergency on March 28, more people got together and the joined this initiative of disinfecting cars, commercial spaces, and buildings of great crowds.

“The community continues to help with the materials that they deliver to us. We mainly use a bleach-based mixture and, when there is - it is practically exhausted - some disinfectant or alcohol available,” he explained. The mixture is made based on the guidance of Australian Outbreak Control Center.  

MTM teams work in two shifts - spraying cars and other vehicles in the morning and buildings in the afternoon. "We want to target cars, where people travel the most, but also places where there is a large circulation of people, even hospitals and health centers that also lack support for cleaning and disinfection," he explained.

Based on the popularity of this initiative, communities and individual are contributing donations to buy more equipment and materials. The team already has 12 spray pumps of 15 liters each, which are filled "four or five times" daily, he noted.

“In the first few days people were skeptical because there was no state of emergency and they didn't know what was going on, but with maximum support from PNTL, we managed to improve in terms of the perception of those who are sprayed”, he said.

"Today people are more aware that the outbreak has devastating impact and can spread through less noticeable ways, such as though surfaces of cars," he said.

The idea is, eventually, to also reach out to the local markets, even though it has to be in a different way given the sale of food, vegetable, and fruits.

Gally Soares Araújo said that the initiative will continue and noted that this week, unlike the first in a state of emergency, there will be more movement on the streets.

“What we've noticed since this week is that there is more flow of traffic and people. Last week there were more restrictions, but this week we have a lot of people going around, almost double or triple the number of the week when emergency was declared”, he recalled.

Timor-Leste has one confirmed case of covid-19 so far. The new coronavirus, responsible for the covid-19 pandemic, has already infected more than 1.3 million people worldwide, of whom more than 73,000 have died.

After appearing in China in December, the outbreak spread across the world, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a pandemic.