ACT Alliance member Finn Church Aid has launched a preventative campaign against the spread of COVID-19 in schools and Internally Displaced People (IDP) settlements in the South West State of Baidoa, Somalia.

In light of the global outbreak of COVID-19, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education (MOECHE) of the South West State of Somalia decided that all schools, universities, and other learning institutions would close as of March 18^th as a precautionary measure.

As Baidoa hosts one of the highest numbers of IDP settlements in Somalia, the closure of schools has exposed children from vulnerable communities, particularly those living in IDP settlements to a high risk of being affected by the spreading pandemic.

To contribute to the reduction and prevention of the spread of COVID-19, FCA with the support of MOECHE conducted various community sensitisation and awareness-raising activities, sharing accurate information on COVID-19 in line with the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health. The activities targeted caregivers, teachers, host community children from six primary schools in Baidoa, and other members from the IDP settlements. The sensitisation initiatives were carried out by 72 experienced community mobilisers and various school-based Community Education Committees and are anticipated to run until May 2020.

FCA conducted door-to-door campaigns in the IDP settlements and surrounding communities to inform individuals on how to protect themselves from COVID-19 through proper handwashing techniques, and how to prevent its spread through social distancing. Additional educational materials were developed in English and Somali and were distributed to community members.

In addition to these efforts, preventative and precautionary information on the dangers of the outbreak was broadcast on Baidoa’s radio station for two weeks. The radio messages were an important source of information for the town of Baidoa, as the majority of the community rely on gathering information through the radio, particularly as schools remain closed.

The Director-General of MoECHE South West state of Somalia, Mr Fadal Abdullahi Mursal noted his appreciation for FCA’s timely sensitisation and awareness initiatives for school children and their parents during the school closures. Mr Abdullahi Mursal encouraged FCA to further its sensitisation initiatives to the surrounding communities so that all children and their parents are informed on preventative strategies of the pandemic.

The Minister of MOECHE of the South West state of Somalia, Mr Mohamed Yusuf Hassan, also commended FCA for its swift action, particularly in the IDP settlements. While overseeing one of FCA’s awareness sessions, the minister encouraged all other education partners in Baidoa to take note of FCA’s initiatives and to implement them in other schools within the Baidoa district and across the whole South West State of Somalia.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many faith actors are on the frontline. ACT Alliance is standing together with religious leaders and faith-based actors around the world to advocate to governments and civil society, for urgent responses that protect women’s rights and achieve gender equality.  

The crisis does not operate in a vacuum and, as a result, the pandemic is increasing pre-existing gender inequalities. Around the world, gender roles have a marked impact on exposure, transmission, and outcome patterns of COVID-19. Women and girls are experiencing intersecting injustices in political, social and economic spheres.

Sexual and Gender Based Violence

In the statement published today, Faith in Beijing, who are a collective of religious actors and faith-based networks, call for COVID-19 responses to include strategies to address and prevent Sexual and Gender Based Violence. Under lockdown policies, many women are forced to stay at homes where they are not safe or secure. They are forced to live with abusive partners or parents, while services to survivors of gender-based violence are harder to access. In some communities around the world, violence against women during the pandemic has been perpetrated by the security agencies enforcing the lockdown, using undue force.

Faith on the Frontline

Faith communities have a strong base from which to promote social distancing (to reduce transmission of the virus causing COVID-19), while also practicing solidarity. Many religious actors hold significant power and trust, sometimes more than the government. Thus, religious institutions can play a vital role in distributing accurate key public health information to their communities. Religious leaders can play a positive role in promoting messages of gender justice, challenging stigma and harmful gender norms.

Equality and Justice for All

As business as usual is paused, we have an opportunity to reflect upon the brokenness in our world and our economic system. In these spaces, we can begin to imagine a world rooted in equality and justice for all. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how globally interconnected we are and how gender injustice reveals itself at an individual and a collective level. 

ACT, along with Faith in Beijing members, were due to participate in the UN Commission on the Status of Women 64. While the international gathering of UN Member States and civil society was postponed last month, our work for gender justice remains important, to ensure a just and sustainable future for all.

Read the statement on Gender, Faith and COVID-19 here (add link to your webpage).

NOTES:

Religious Actors and Faith-Based Organisations who have signed the statements include (in alphabetical order):

1. ACT Alliance
2. Act Church of Sweden
3. Anglican Communion
4. Association of Presbyterian Women Aotearoa New Zealand
5. Christian Aid
6. DanChurchAid
7. The Girls’ Brigade International
8. Islamic Relief Worldwide
9. Side by Side: Faith movement for gender justice
10. United Society of Partners in the Gospel
11. We Will Speak Out South Africa
12. World Council of Churches

ACT Alliance joins the message from the Interfaith group active at UNFCCC in response to the postponement of COP26

As faith-based organisations and movements calling for fair and just policies able to tackle the climate emergency, we understand and support the UNFCCC decision to postpone COP26 in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic that is affecting the whole of humanity. We nevertheless call on ourselves and on all stakeholders to not delay ambitious and urgent climate action.

We see the trauma, anxiety, vulnerability and loss of life around the world caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among already vulnerable communities. We are appalled by the increase in human rights violations, including racism, extreme surveillance, xenophobia, misuses of emergency powers and domestic violence.

We remain hopeful as we see people of all faiths and across all borders rising to a powerful call of solidarity, kindness, and support, adjusting our lives for the greater good, looking into creative and simple solutions to show care for one another. We also witness more time for reflection.

We proclaim loudly that we were already living in a state of emergency prior to COVID-19. We have a responsibility to ensure we do not return to behaviours which, as the current crisis has shown, leave the vast majority extremely vulnerable to hardship and suffering after only a few weeks of economic stagnation. Here we see the role of faith in learning from the COVID-19 crisis and to advocate for a just recovery to build a healthier future where the human family lives in a way that respects nature and Mother Earth on which we all depend.

The choices we now make will shape our society for years and it is crucial that efforts to rebuild economies put people’s health before profit. Governments have pledged extraordinary amounts of money to prevent economic disasters because of this pandemic, but that money must not be used to finance future environmental degradation. We must not return to relaunching fossil fuel subsidies and unhealthy consumption patterns. The plans for a just recovery from COVID-19 must take into account the necessary measures to tackle climate change with a managed, planned and fair approach. We call for a rebuilding which upholds the human rights, health and wellbeing of citizens as critical to the stability and security of all countries.

We are moved by our faiths to see beyond this moment of fear and call on solidarity, community action and moral courage. We call on the UNFCCC, all governments and all people, to build a sustainable, just and healthy society that is resilient in times of crises such as COVID-19 and climate change, and to act early enough to prevent greater hardship and suffering in the future. This is the time to create a healthier and more resilient society together.

The Interfaith Liaison Committee to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Earth Day of 2020 marks the significant Golden Earth year since the UN initiated Earth Day in 1970. The Golden Earth year takes place amidst the global pandemic of COVID -19, which is inflicting great challenges on the human race, including loss of life and conflict on our earth.

Earth is life – life in all its fullness.
Earth is a gift, one that is intertwined with life.
Earth is precious and valuable, and it is not to be plundered nor exploited.
If done so, our gift of earth and life will be destroyed.

Oikumene refers to all life on earth, including the flora, fauna and the human race. All that is under the sky is equal, and the earth is an equal gift to all. In an ecosystem, there is no hierarchy, as interdependence, harmony and living together are the norm. Earth is a gift in the purest form, and it should be protected from generation to generation.

Humans have taken over parts of the earth, forgetting that it is for all and for the generations to come. Over time, humans have also excluded other humans from enjoying the beauty and bounty of the earth in the name of caste, creed, gender, age, race and ability. These inequalities and injustices are reflected in various ways around the world, leading to the destruction of the earth and the human race.

Earth has enough for everybody’s needs, not for every body’s greed.

As people around the world fight a global pandemic this earth day which has kept many people in a state of lockdown, the earth is breathing a little easier.

This raises critical questions; do we need a virus to tell us to stay indoors and to treat the earth with care? This Earth Day presents us with a good opportunity to reflect on what is essential and what is not, on how we can treat the earth more gently and live a holistic life with only the essentials. A motto of minimum and essential for all, in all, could save the earth and humans too.

“Joyful joyful we adore our Earth in all its wonderment
Simple gifts of nature that all join into a paradise
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love throughout all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world.”

Blog written by Joycia Thorat, CASA India

March 2020 marked one year since Tropical Cyclone Idai struck parts of Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The impacts of the cyclone displaced millions of people, claimed lives, livelihoods and caused widespread destruction which communities are yet to fully recover from.

ACT Alliance launched an appeal (SAF 191) to raise funds to respond to the recovery, livelihood and resilience needs of communities affected by Cyclone Idai. To date, USD 4, 584, 103 of the USD 8, 168, 517 appeal has been funded (approximately 60 per cent).

Mozambique

Cyclone Idai struck Mozambique just weeks before the annual harvest, destroying acres of farmland and crops and leaving thousands of people, particularly in the Sofala Province in need of food assistance. Through the ACT Appeal, over 5, 000 people were provided with food kits and cash assistance.

The cyclone triggered floods which contaminated many of the water bodies that people relied on. To reduce the risk of water-borne diseases, ACT members provided water treatment services to over 3, 000 households and constructed over 45 latrines for schools. Through the appeal, ACT members were also able to provide capacity building on hygiene practices and water resource management.

As a result of the severe destruction caused by the cyclone, there was also a need for psychosocial support in the various settlement camps. ACT members including Igreja Evangelica Lutheran Mozambique (IELM), Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) and the Lutheran Church in Chimoio encouraged pastors and Bishops to visit several settlement camps which gave hope to many communities in the wake of the trauma caused by the disaster.

Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe, ACT Alliance launched a hygiene awareness initiative to build the resilience and capacity of health workers so that communities would be better prepared should a similar disaster occur in the future. Through the appeal, ACT provided Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) kits to 1, 194 households. Despite these efforts, there is still a great need for hygiene kits for women.

Through the Appeal, ACT constructed 147 houses for families in the hard to reach districts of Chipinge, Buhera and Bikita. The decision to construct houses as opposed to providing temporary shelters was in line with the government of Zimbabwe’s long-term housing plan to support families whose homes were destroyed by the cyclone.

In addition to these services, ACT Alliance hosted sporting activities and provided psychosocial support to over 3, 000 people.  ACT member ACT Church of Sweden trained over 50 church leaders to offer psychological support to individuals, families and communities.

The ACT Zimbabwe Forum has an ongoing appeal related to drought, more information on this appeal is available here.

Malawi

Through the ACT appeal, the ACT Malawi Forum supported 140 displaced families in the Nsanje District with tents. As communities in Malawi worked to rebuild their lives, many faced additional burdens as high temperatures and a worm infestation obliterated crops. In light of this, ACT provided 73 households with agriculture and irrigation tools and connected them to a small solar irrigation farm to support their agricultural efforts despite the dry conditions.

The Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi Emergency Response to Cyclone Idai-SAF 191 is available here.

Finn Church Aid (FCA) has granted 100,000 euros to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in South Sudan, Somalia and Uganda, in addition to 50,000 euros previously allocated to Kenya.

Vulnerable communities across the world are bracing for the impact of a potential spread of the coronavirus.

An essential part of slowing down the pandemic is maintaining sufficient hand hygiene and avoiding human contact but the measures are not easy to apply in for instance refugee contexts. Camps and settlements are densely populated, and people even lack access to soap.

Uganda hosts the largest number of refugees in Africa. FCA partners with the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR in the education sector and the work includes the two largest refugee settlements: Bidibidi in the north and Kyaka in the southwest of Uganda. They are home to over 250,000 refugees.

Read the full story:

https://www.kirkonulkomaanapu.fi/en/latest-news/news/an-unprecedented-disaster-looms-in-east-africas-fragile-countries/

ACT Alliance members Christian Aid and CREAS joined other churches and ecumenical organizations from 6 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean to host a training course titled, ‘Religion and Development: Advocacy for sustainable development‘. The course aimed to support joint advocacy strategies for sustainable development in the region.

The need for a sustainable transition has become ever more relevant and urgent in the wake of COVID-19. The Social Economic Council for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has projected that impacts of the pandemic will place 35 million (M) people in the region into poverty and that the number of people living in extreme poverty will increase from 67.4M to 90M. 

“The current economic system makes people, their communities and the planet sick. When we started the formation program, we wanted to gather prophetic voices in the region who dared to announce that the current development model deepens historical inequalities. FBOs have the courage to advocate for an economy for life, not for profits,” said Marcos Lopes, Christian Aid’s Advisor for Economic Justice and Inequalities (LAC region).

The course encouraged participants to exchange perspectives and experiences of churches and FBOs in the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda. As a result of the travel restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the final session of the course was hosted virtually. It included expert inputs from ACT Alliance, Paz y Esperanza, the Interreligious Alliance for the 2030 Agenda and Caritas Internationalis (LAC region). Horacio Mesones, Head of Training at CREAS reflected on the session, “through this dialogue we were able to gather the experiences of ACT forums in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Nicaragua and Honduras as well as other churches, ecumenical and inter-religious platforms working on sustainable development. We identified the contributions of churches and FBOs to the 2030 Agenda and noted various prophetic advocacy strategies on sustainable development.”

The course provided a space for FBO’s to continue to strengthen their engagement in various national and regional processes. Jhon Martínez and Elena López of CREAS’ Religion and Development team noted the commitment of their organization to promote more spaces for the ecumenical family to engage, for example, the ecumenical initiative of Awakening the Giant in Colombia.

“Based on the experiences and contributions of each one of the participants and their organizations, we have managed to build a much stronger and more capable collective voice to advocate so that the Sustainable Development Agenda is not an empty agreement, but a tool for building an economy for life,” concluded Lopes.

The group intends to continue to strengthen their contributions to sustainable development and identified the following next steps;

1) To further engage with the various structures of ACT Alliance (including, Forums, Communities of Practice and Reference Groups);
2) To begin mapping and developing roadmaps to facilitate advanced advocacy strategies in each country;
3) To strengthen the network as a space for exchange;
4) To develop a publication that reflects the experiences and capacities of the participants.

Written by: Laura Chacón, CREAS

ACT Alliance member the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) has launched a response to support 300 households of the Navotas community who had been affected by lockdowns to stop the spread of COVID-19.  NCCP distributed food and hygiene kits to the vulnerable families to help them weather this pandemic.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government of the Philippines implemented a 30-day enhanced community quarantine in Luzon, the country’s largest and most populous island, starting on March 14^th. The enhanced community quarantine period has since been extended to April 30^th and continues to be enforced by police officers and military personnel.

The lockdown has required businesses, markets, and transportation to suspend their services, while food and other essential services continue to be regulated by the government. For the duration of the lockdown, each family is issued a ‘quarantine pass’, allowing just one person to leave their home at a time to purchase food, medicine or to engage in other essential activities.

The extended lockdown period has particularly impacted lower-income families who are reliant on their daily earnings for survival, for example, jeepney drivers and market vendors, to name a few. These most vulnerable people are the ones NCCP has reached out to with their response.

The Navotas community is located near the country’s oldest fishing port, so many residents rely on the industry for employment as fish hauliers, vendors and tricycle drivers, all of whom have had to stop working during the pandemic and are no longer receiving a daily wage.

It has been over three weeks since low-income communities were informed that they would receive assistance from their local government units; however, many families have not yet been assisted. While some families have received support from their local governments, many have noted that the food packs that they received would only support them for two to three days.

“Unless the poor are considered and provided with economic relief and unless medical services are enhanced and made accessible for them, the community quarantine in whatever form will defeat itself. This will just lead us to further humanitarian crisis,” said Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza, NCCP’s General Secretary.

NCCP’s food kits consisted of 10 kgs of rice, dried fish, mung beans, salt, sugar, canned foods, and cooking oil. The food kits are anticipated to support a family of five for 7-10 days. The hygiene kits consisted of soap, detergent, rubbing alcohol, disinfectant cleaning solution and face masks.

To avoid over-crowding during relief distribution, NCCP and its ecumenical partner organization, Task Force DAMBANA divided the families into clusters. Each cluster had one designated leader and an assistant who were the only ones authorized to pick up and deliver the relief kits to their community members.

For more information on the various responses of NCCP and local member churches sharing hope amidst the crisis, check out the hashtag #ShareYourMinistry campaign on Facebook.

In a joint letter to US president Donald Trump, ACT Alliance, the World Council of Churches, and National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA have urged the US to lift crippling sanctions against Iran that are greatly impeding response in that nation to COVID-19.

“The novel coronavirus is a common enemy of humanity everywhere,” reads the letter. “An effective response to the pandemic demands an unprecedented degree of global solidarity and cooperation, special care for the most vulnerable, and swift action to mitigate the conditions which create additional vulnerability.”

The religious leaders share a deep concern for the impact on the people of Iran of the sanctions imposed by the United States. “Iran, currently with over 67,000 confirmed cases and more than 4,000 documented deaths due to COVID-19, is by far the most affected country in the Eastern Mediterranean region, and one of the most affected countries in the world,” reads the letter. “But its public health response is severely impeded by the strict sanctions regime imposed on the country unilaterally by the United States since May 2019, resulting in an almost total economic blockade.”

The letter also calls for the lifting of sanctions facing other countries. “In this moment of global crisis, we make the same appeal in relation to sanctions impeding public health responses in other parts of the world – including Syria, Gaza, Venezuela and Cuba – whose people, already victimized by conflict and geo-political confrontation, are being deprived of badly-needed medicines, medical supplies and equipment…”

Now is not the moment for pursuing grievances belonging to the politics of the world before COVID-19, urges the letter. “In our new reality, any notion of national security is contingent on an effective response to the virus globally,” the letter reads. “Now is the moment for international solidarity and cooperation in controlling the spread of the virus, protecting the most vulnerable, and defeating this common enemy.”

Read the letter to US President Donald Trump here.

A Call for Humanity and Stronger Global Governance

It is with dismay that we see how much the COVID-19 has affected people and nations. This pandemic is one of the major humanitarian crises in modern history and has spread to conflict-affected and fragile countries. This pandemic increases the vulnerability of people already experiencing humanitarian crises, poverty, inequalities and economic distress. Humanitarian needs will become more acute and will be more challenging to staff and to fund, as countries around the world focus on meeting their own COVID-19-related needs.

In times when all governments and institutions should be ensuring full, safe, immediate and unrestricted access for humanitarian and medical personnel, including their equipment and supplies to the most affected areas, it is distressful to see some governments using economic war tactics to control supply chains for goods that suddenly appear strategic, undermining a fair humanitarian response, especially in countries with less economic resources.

The implications for countries with weak health systems may be especially harsh and may disproportionally affect populations that are highly exposed or confined, including migrants, displaced persons, asylum-seekers, refugees, and those living in informal settlements. Communities that rely heavily on humanitarian assistance, or are subject to economic sanctions and import restrictions, may face acute threats.

In a moment when even countries with strong and solid health systems and economies find it difficult to respond to the challenges of COVID-19, and when international collaboration and solidarity is paramount, we still see some few governments being inflexible in relaxing or banning economic embargos and sanctions on countries and populations that have been struggling to survive even in more normal times.

This pandemic affects men and women differently, and people may also face added dangers due to racial discrimination, age and gender. We must acknowledge that women are on the frontlines and female nurses make up most of the medical personnel in most countries, but they are also more susceptible to sexual and gender-based violence in time of quarantine and lockdown.

Amid such scenarios, it is impressive to experience the solidarity that has been demonstrated by people, communities, governments and institutions around the world. This solidary wave creates an opportunity to build a new spirit for humanity, but it will depend mainly on the attitudes of the people, including political leaders and institutions.

We welcome the United Nations Secretary-General’s call to the international community to move to a health strategy “that ensures, in full transparency, a coordinated global response, including helping countries that are less prepared to tackle the crisis”. Likewise, his call for an immediate global ceasefire, to “silence the guns” and “focus together on the true fight of our lives”.

We also welcome the call from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet and others who have called for both international and unilateral sanctions to be relaxed to permit countries access to necessary goods and equipment in the context of the pandemic: “Humanitarian exemptions to sanctions measures should be given broad and practical effect, with prompt, flexible authorization for essential medical equipment and supplies”.

As many researchers, peoples and institutions are saying, the world will not be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we firmly believe that it is time to use this opportunity to rethink our understanding of humanity and how global governance works.

We must learn from our history. The United Nations was created 75 years ago as a response to the atrocities of a major global crisis, where many principles and instruments were created to ensure peace and security, human rights and sustainable development. Now, it is time to assess how the international community is holding these principles and instruments and amend them to the new reality in front of us.

Therefore, the ACT Alliance calls peoples, governments, multilateral institutions and civil society organizations, including faith communities, to take decisive and forward-looking actions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, we call on:

1. Governments to make all necessary efforts and use all necessary resources to combat COVID-19 as a global pandemic and to ensure that cross-border medical and other essential goods supply chains can function effectively and efficiently for the common good.

2. UN, humanitarian organizations and governments to continue ensuring adequate humanitarian and development assistance, funding and social protection to people affected by conflicts, wars, displacement and poverty.

3. International community and governments to suspend or exonerate the external debt payments of affected poor countries in order to allow them to allocate resources to respond to the pandemic.

4. Governments to immediately stop embargos and economic sanctions on countries affected by the pandemic, especially Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, as a humanitarian gesture superseding a political stance.

5. All people, governments and organizations to acknowledge the impact of the pandemic on women and stress the importance of women’s participation in the development of the responses to the pandemic.

6. Governments to divert attention, funding and resources from war machinery to focus on the epidemic and thus support peace processes.

7. Political leaders to make all efforts to make the role of the UN stronger in order to ensure principled global governance, including the revision of the UN Charter to ensure fairness and equality for the entirety of humanity, for one humanity.

Rudelmar Bueno de Faria
ACT Alliance General Secretary