Connective Intelligence: How to reinvent solidarity during lockdown

While essential services are more than ever solicited, we must stay home and most of us do respect the rules.

Many of us are lucky enough to have a roof over our heads and our stomachs full. We applaud from our balconies every evening, light up candles at our windows, but for a lot of us we are forced to face a new reality:

Yesterday priorities are not the same today.

We are starting to feel powerless facing such situation. Thus, some people get submerged by fear and end up rejecting, denouncing, condemning and saying things they never would have said before …;

Others feel guilty for going round in circles or even for not being a doctor. They ask themselves how to step up in a useful way against the virus of course, but also in order to offset this hate some part of humanity is expressing because of fear.

Therefore, we are witnessing a rush of solidarity these last weeks. People making masks or hand sanitizers, delivering food to the elderly, retired doctors going back to work without hesitating a minute and sometimes at the risk of their own lives…

How can I step up knowing I do not have a sewing machine or any medical skills and on top of that having to stay home?

You may have asked yourself this question just like I have a few days ago.

Because I believe it is essential to remain proactive in these tough times, I want to share with you my experience using connective intelligence to help others my own way while also staying home and using only a good internet connection and a smartphone.

 1.      Find your target audience and establish a state of play

[Hundreds of thousands of travelers stranded abroad]

As some of you may know I love getaways, trips and hikes. Above all I am thrilled by the whole human experience that goes with meeting people open to the world and open to others along the way.

Therefore I am part of multiple travel networks and discussion groups and have also many friends and family members around the world.

Many adventurous travelers leave with nothing more than their backpacks, sometimes a tent, others buy a van once they have arrived or choose to live with local hosts. It could be your cousin, your kid, your neighbor, a colleague…

When different countries around the world began announcing one after the other quarantine rules, then borders closure and finally lockdown, I witnessed their growing distress from behind the screen:

• The soaring price of airline tickets: right now a ticket to fly from one continent to another costs between 4000 to 12000 NZD on average.
• Europeans abroad are rejected by many locals afraid by contagion or because of the eventuality of being concerned by lockdown ever soon. Therefore, a lot of them get fired. Unfortunately I have read so many violent comments I would rather avoid bringing it up here…
• Embassies ask travelers to fly back home before there are no flights left at all. However, there are no repatriation in countries that are not considered being at risk.
• Hostels and camping sites close at a rate of knots and travelers are expelled. Obviously this cuts their access to hygiene, leads to gathering and does not help anyone in this war against Rona…
• Neither insurance brokers nor insurance companies dare to answer their questions in an understanding language and do not simply admit clearly that they are not covered for pandemics.
• Some transit flights are also cancelled at the last minute and travelers end up stranded midway without any money left like in Qatar where they end up having to try to find shelter for quarantine at an affordable price.

To sum up the situation: no money, no flights, no housing, no job, rising discrimination, poor hygiene conditions and no insurance...

The analysis is pretty harsh and travelers’ needs are very important as you can acknowledge yourself. Imagine what this represents on a global scale. Fortunately, the situation evolves every day from one country or embassy to another;

Nevertheless, after closing their boarders and locking down the country, by the time the local government figures out how to deal with travelers stranded on their territory, they can remain helpless for days or weeks.

What happens during this period?

A week ago, a local resident offered her help on one of the groups I mentioned. She was offering her land for self-contained vans or for backpackers having a tent. Without any financial motivation. The members of this group do not even share the same mother tongue. 

Just so you know: They had only 2 days left before lockdown.

How astonishing was that! For me, for those backpackers who were seriously starting to panic, all of the sudden homeless, here we are, receiving such a big demonstration of love and generosity. This woman received so many demands she obviously could not help everyone. 

2.      Figure out how the identified needs correlate with your skills

My first idea was to search for a group putting local “superheroes” like this woman and travelers in touch on a famous social media. At the time I was very surprised to see that it did not exist.

I could not wait any longer. These people only had 2 days left to found shelter. My communication and language skills will be my weapons in this war. I decided to create this group myself: ? COVID-19: Help travelers around you! ? was born. This same woman thanked me warmly and explained to me that this group was exactly what she needed: an English and international group, which enables her to offer her help to all travelers in her area. However, this is not the only country concerned by these issues and there is still a lot to do for all those travelers waiting to go back home. There are hundreds of travelers groups but none of them bring together both communities: travelers and local superheroes.

3.      Elaborate a strategy and set reasonable goals.

On the first day I created this group, my aim was to create a clear identity in order to unite this community around a common mission of solidarity and also build my strategy.

I wanted to set myself reasonable goals for a start and to be honest I was only expecting a hundred of members on day 1.

Then I had to tailor messages that speak to them. The objective is not quantity but quality.

FYI : I ask all members to be helpful in such a way that they limit direct contact and respect health measures.

Finally I had to identify ways to reach both travelers and local superheroes around the world and target countries depending on the urgency of the situation and levels of COVID-19 measures.

4.      Results on day 5:

After a first day reaching 400 members, the group ? COVID-19: Help travelers around you! ? then reached more than 1000 members in 51 countries around the world on Day 5!

Over 1K posts and comments, and regarding the number of travelers who received help, this remains difficult to determine because once members are in touch I am not always informed about what happens next. However, I can certainly tell it concerns dozens of travelers. Knowing I was hoping to help at least one of them, this already means so much to me… 

5.      Conclusion

Either your skills or talents are considered essential or not, we can all take action. Making your friends laugh, being someone’s confidant, helping your neighbor… There are as many ways to reinvent solidarity as there are people on this planet thanks to connective intelligence.

To Nadine & Kathy... Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity you are so inspiring. Hoping to see you soon!

Friday 27 March 2020,

Chantal AMADOR, Strategic communicator.