Help us to provide vulnerable children and those living in poverty with food and medicine during the coronavirus pandemic.
We wanted to update you on the coronavirus situation in the countries where we work. It is an uncertain and worrying time for all of us, but we are also witnessing first-hand the acute fear that is being felt by families living in the communities that we work alongside - where medical supplies, food and even water are already scarce.
Over the past few weeks, hundreds of charity aid workers have left the refugee camps around the world - under instruction from the authorities in the countries where they work. We have been contacted by doctors who have remained in the camps and they have urged us to spread the word - that thousands of refugees, who are already living in desperate and unsanitary conditions, are living with no access to medicine and are facing desperate food shortages.
Whilst we admirably pull together as a nation, we urge you to remember that this is a crisis that the world faces together. Currently millions of people in developing countries are trying to work out how to survive a pandemic without the resources of the western world. At Humanitas we are determined to show solidarity with them at this critical time.
As a small, grass-roots charity, we are also facing the prospect of trying to survive another financial crash and the inevitable consequences - donors and grant makers reducing or withdrawing their support. Please stay with us during this time, we need you now more than ever.
We are doing everything we can, around the clock, and our incredible frontline staff in Romania and Ghana are fully committed to continuing their work throughout this difficult time. Please take a look below at the updates from our teams working on the ground.
Romania
The outbreak of the coronavirus has led to a slow lock down in Romania. Most restaurants, shops and public areas have been closed for the past week, with people asked to remain at home for the foreseeable future. We are expecting to see a forced lock down in place this weekend.
All of our foster families are staying at home and are prepared for the coming weeks. Our difficulty has been securing the safety of the children living in our Safe Homes.
Many of the children living in our Safe Homes have low immune systems and complex health conditions that mean they are in the highest ‘at risk’ group. We are currently in the process of making isolation rooms within the homes and trying to map out staffing, so all our children are cared for as safely as possible.
Coupled with this, food prices in Romania have quadrupled since the outbreak and the cost of medication is unaffordable, even for middle income families. We desperately need additional funding to see us through this difficult period, to buy food and medical supplies to ensure that the children living in our Safe Homes continue to be looked after and live without pain.
Ghana
We have received very distressing messages from our team in Ghana over the past week. People in rural Africa are extremely scared as they aren’t receiving any information or support on how to deal with the coronavirus. We have taken a few approaches to the crisis there.
We closed our school this week, but our teachers are continuing to meet with small, rotating groups of children in our library so that we can continue to educate our pupils and help them to understand what is happening and how they can protect themselves.
We are making sure that the whole community in Ayensuako has access to our water well, and we desperately need extra funds so that we can provide our students and their families with food packages, soap and paracetamol.
We are also extending our support to the local orphanage that homes over 100 children. We have been working with the orphanage since the beginning of the year, as their building is falling down and the children are living in some of the worst conditions that we have seen. We have received urgent correspondence from them as they currently have no soap or medicines and their food supplies are running dangerously low.
Please don't underestimate the impact you can have right now with as little as a £3 donation.