There is no question that the last number of months have been difficult for all the people across Ireland. Some have experienced greater challenges than others and unfortunately it is true that many have lost loved ones in the most tragic of circumstances.
Those who are older are unfortunately more susceptible to the coronavirus. My own mother is 91 years old and despite being healthy, she has been in lockdown since early March. This has not been easy. A number of my family and friends are working on the Covid-19 frontline and their role in looking after us has to be commended. Currently, two members of my family are working in the NHS in Leicester which has been particularly badly hit by the virus. This is a reality for many families and of course adds to the worry of whole situation.
The Covid-19 pandemic has presented challenges none of us quite expected in 2020. It will be some time until the true extent of the damage inflicted on all of us will be known, however, we must be thankful that we have taken the first tentative steps out of lockdown.
While this is the reality for us at home, the reality for those in the world’s poorest countries is very different. After many years of instability caused by conflict, drought and floods, the potential destruction which Covid-19 could cause in fragile places like Yemen, Syria, South Sudan and Afghanistan is truly frightening.
In my 20 plus years fundraising for international development, I have visited countries - including Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo - where Concern, along with other member charities of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), are now focusing critical relief efforts.
In these places, I have met mothers and their children who have had to flee for their lives, seeking shelter in refugee camps and informal settlements. It is hard to imagine having to leave everything behind to keep your family safe, only to now face this new, deadly threat.
With far fewer resources than ourselves, and a reported 24 million displaced people living in crowded temporary shelters across these places, Covid-19 could be catastrophic.
If the pandemic hit us all hard, just imagine how hard it will hit those who don’t have soap or running water, let alone an adequate health service to prevent the virus spreading. When I deliver groceries to my mother, I am so conscious about hand hygiene and the ‘need’ to disinfect everything. While this may be a small thing to us, for those in fragile places and refugee camps, it is simply not always possible. If only this was their sole worry.
From our own relative success in stemming the virus at home, it is clear that our ability to social distance played a major part in this. For those in Cox’s Bazar – the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh which is home to more than 850,000 Rohingya people - social distancing is challenging. In an area which is one and a half times more densely populated than New York City, but without the same health and sanitation facilities, the potential for the virus to take hold with devastating consequences is significant.
The Disasters Emergency Committee Coronavirus Appeal launched last week, offering us all the opportunity to help protect the most vulnerable. This urgent appeal is vital to our collective responsibility to all the families and refugees living in the most fragile places in the world. In bringing together 14 of the leading aid charities from across the UK, with vast experience in the field, we are well placed to respond to this challenging environment and protect the most vulnerable today.
Locally in Ireland, Concern works closely with fellow DEC member charities including Tearfund, British Red Cross and Save the Children. While we may be different charities, our focus on protecting the most vulnerable throughout the world unites us. This is why, after 57 years, the DEC is stronger than ever.
Collectively, our expert teams on the ground are working day and night to respond to the unfolding challenges and helping to save lives. For this, I am eternally grateful and hope that people here at home can support them with even the smallest of donations.
In each of the places we are operating, the complexity of the situation requires a tailored approach. Our experience in fighting Ebola has in many ways set us up well to respond to Covid-19.
Hygiene is of vital importance; this cannot be reiterated enough. To this end we have incorporated hygiene education into virtually all of our programmes and launched promotional campaigns on the best handwashing practices.
This simple but critical action can be the difference between life and death, even more so in these fragile places. In Afghanistan, we are assembling hygiene kits containing soap bars, detergent and sanitary pads and in Syria, we are scaling up the distribution of kits across camps and informal settlements due to their particular susceptibility. All of this is vital in our aim of protecting the most vulnerable.
Another important step that can help reduce the spread of coronavirus is communicating accurate and up-to-date information as effectively as possible. To this end, we have introduced ‘wash your hands’ campaigns in Cox’s Bazar and South Sudan, where we have also implemented rainwater harvesting to provide water for handwashing and scaled up interventions to support infection prevention and control, especially in areas of high population movement.
In many of these contexts, governance is poor and health systems are weak at the best of times. That is why we are also keeping people’s long-term needs at the heart of our work. Our ongoing work to provide humanitarian aid - including access to health systems and distributing food and cash to help people secure necessities - must continue to avoid further crises unfolding.
Covid-19 is the perfect storm with the potential to unleash a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions that we have never seen before. If we do not act now, generations will be lost forever in the most fragile places in the world. We cannot let this happen.
To help in the fight against Coronavirus in the most fragile places in the world, please visit: https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/coronavirus-appeal
