Project Liber8 puts Malaysia on the world map as the only Malaysian winners of the #BuildforCOVID19 Hackathon
If there’s anything we’ve learnt in the past couple of months, it’s that the Covid-19 pandemic does not discriminate. Here in Malaysia, the MCO has helped in efforts to flatten the curve, but it’s also left migrant workers in the country more vulnerable than ever before, especially in terms of public health and their rights at work.
That’s where local NGO Project Liber8 has stepped in.
The NGO’s recent collaboration with Axiata Analytics Centre (AAC) to launch a chatbot that provides information targeted to migrant workers has earned global recognition after it was named as one of the winners of the #BuildforCOVID19 Global Hackathon. This also made Project Liber8 the only Malaysian organisation that made it to the winner list.
With health partners such as the WHO, scientists from the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and support from tech platforms such as AWS, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter, the hackathon was organized as means of encouraging pioneers around the world to utilise technology to aid in combatting the fall out from the virus.
“It’s important that we create a chatbot with multiple languages because sometimes migrant workers can’t read in English and Malay. So creating information in various languages allows them to access them easily as well,”
New Su Shern, Founder and Executive Director of Project Liber8.
Project Liber8’s chatbot had initially been developed to provide migrant workers with information on their labour rights, however, “with so much of fake news circulating around, we thought it would be a good idea to include a section on Covid-19 so migrant workers can have easy access to verified information, and more specifically, how it affects them as migrant workers here in Malaysia,” said New.
The chatbot includes information on Covid-19 and its symptoms, steps for prevention, how their employment would be affected by the Movement Control Order (MCO), as well as additional resources to seek help if needed. All the information provided were taken from verified sources, such as Malaysia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
To tackle misinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic online, the chatbot currently comes in the languages of Bengali, Nepali, Bahasa Indonesia, Burmese, and English, the five languages that are most commonly used by migrant workers in Malaysia.
The MCO is a confusing time for all, and with migrant workers left in limbo, we could use more organizations like Project Liber8 to advocate for migrant workers through this understandably confusing time.
