From the margins to frontliners: Trans volunteers step up
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From the margins to frontliners: Trans volunteers step up

From the margins to frontliners: Trans volunteers step up
Volunteers of Brihonnola, a platform for the transgender community, pulling a patient in wheelchair with oxygen cylinder towards hospital. Photo: Md Abu Sufian Jewel /UNB.


The strict lockdown imposed countrywide from April 14 to put a leash on the soaring transmission of Covid-19 in Bangladesh will stay in force till at least April 28.

As boundless agonies of marginal income earners become more evident every day, some of them have taken the initiative to turn the table on the face of crisis by volunteering as frontline workers providing critical and emergency services during the pandemic.

Also read: Bangladesh’s Covid death toll nears 11,000 as cases surge

A UNB photojournalist had the opportunity to witness one such extremely vulnerable group – who identify as third gender or transgender – hard at work to earn their keep, even as the lockdown presents a whole new set of risks and dilemmas.

Many of them depend entirely on irregular incomes from daily work in the informal sector. But many have lost their basic income source as the lockdowns come down particularly hard on informal work.

Also read: Govt issues circular extending lockdown until April 28

Brought together by Brihonnola, a platform for the transgender community, these volunteers have stepped forward to fill a critical gap serving Covid-19 patients and their families, fully aware that the risk of infection is far greater in such settings.

The photos were taken as they went about their work at Dhaka Medical College Hospital's Covid-19 unit.

Also read: Transgender community members hold cleanup campaign at DU

From the margins to frontliners: Trans volunteers step up
A transgender volunteer standing outside DMCH offers her services with a placard saying ‘I’m a volunteer! How can I help you?’
From the margins to frontliners: Trans volunteers step up
Spraying disinfectant on a visitor’s hand in front of the hospital.
From the margins to frontliners: Trans volunteers step up
A volunteer with Brihonnola helps a patient to get down from an ambulance.
From the margins to frontliners: Trans volunteers step up
Two volunteers taking a critical patient in wheelchair with oxygen cylinder to the hospital.
From the margins to frontliners: Trans volunteers step up
A transgender volunteer with Brihonnola driving an autobike that offers free transport to pregnant women, ailing children and relatives of Covid-19 patients.
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Transgender community coronavirus coronavirus outbreak transgender Covid-19 in Bangladesh COVID-19 pandemic COVID-19 transmission coronavirus situation Coronavirus lockdown Covid-19 lockdown