COVID-19: NOT YET OUT OF THE WOODS

As the world recovers tentatively from the worst of the pandemic, any notion of “normality” still seems nebulous, despite the promise of novel antivirus therapies.

Scientists increasingly believe COVID-19 will become endemic, circulating at a generally steady rate from year to year, with possible seasonal trends and occasional smaller outbreaks.

But the world still has a long way to go before endemicity is reached.

In other words, we’re not yet out of the woods. Which is why we’re continuing to provide emergency funds for partner organizations that are working hard to ensure critical needs are addressed and no one is left behind.

LATIN AMERICA

Armed with these new funds, TECHO can keep on mobilizing its network of 2,000 community leaders to provide vulnerable families in Mexico, Brazil and Colombia with food rations and hygiene products.

THAILAND

In Thailand, Baan Dek Foundation is assisting people living in the crowded construction camps and urban slums of Chiang Mai and Bangkok with hygiene products and cleaning supplies, food rations and housing support (rent and utility bills). The foundation also organises regular public sessions to help ensure the population knows how to keep healthy.

THE PHILIPPINES

In the south of the Philippines, Médecins Sans Frontières is providing primary healthcare, non-communicable disease services and epidemic surveillance for 200,000 displaced families living in temporary shelters in the war-torn city of Marawi, the capital of the Philippines’ poorest province, Lanao del Sur, located in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

BANGLADESH

In Bangladesh, our emergency funds are helping the Asian University of Women to ensure students who have very limited home resources to support their continued learning can return safely to campus and in-person classes. AUW is setting up strict health and safety protocols to support this, procuring resources such as Covid-19 test kits and PPE, while also arranging back-up emergency support in the University since hospitals in the local areas are already stretched.

AUSTRALIA

In Australia, we are supporting three organisations at the frontline of the COVID-19 crisis: 

• FoodBank, the country’s largest food relief organization, which is providing food to over 1 million people in need across the nation every month. 
• LifeLine a leading suicide prevention service provider, which received almost 90,000 hotline calls every month during the lockdown and is still facing more demand for support than ever before 
• Australian Red Cross, whose hundreds of volunteers are working tirelessly to help those hit hardest by disruption and uncertainty.

Cartier and Cartier Philanthropy have contributed to the global relief efforts since the very beginning of the coronavirus crisis, so far providing emergency funds to 21 non-profit organisations in 22 countries worldwide.

Find out more about our COVID-19 response in Lebanon here, in India here or around the world here.