Across the world, our grantees are acting today for a brighter tomorrow.
At Global Greengrants Fund, we trust the instincts of local people. The current pandemic is no different, and we continue to give money to communities and individuals to be used in the ways they deem fit. In response to COVID-19, our grantees are developing strategies that address the widespread impacts of the pandemic, including access to food, medical care and supplies, and strategies to prevent the spread of the virus.
In the past three months, our grantees have used 24 grants totaling $147,182 to address the unique impacts of COVID-19 that they are facing in their communities.
Read on for five ways our grantees are taking action:
The Philippines: The Cordilleran Youth Center initially received a grant for youth-led climate justice work, but these plans changed once COVID-19 hit their home city of Baguio. Now, these young activists are using funds to help low-income college students who are stranded in the city away from their families during lockdown. In addition to lobbying for student demands at local universities, the group is offering emergency assistance to these young people by providing food, medicine, hand sanitizer, masks, and other personal protective equipment.
Paraguay: Articulación de familias con PCD de la comunidad Mbocajaty in Paraguay, a community group working with persons with disabilities and their families, is addressing food insecurity in the absence of effective government support. As in many places around the world, the pandemic has restricted access to markets to buy and sell produce in Paraguay. By providing families with training in gardening and small-scale marketing, the group hopes to recover a collective culture of food cultivation, a crucial strategy to challenge climate-intensive food production systems. All of this is happening via Whatsapp, in the absence of the ability to safely meet in person.
Democratic Republic of the Congo: Communities displaced by large infrastructure projects, such as the highly controversial Inga hydropower dam, are experiencing heightened vulnerability to COVID-19, including more severe food and income shortages than the rest of the population. With $8,000, Synergie Femmes Solidaires is tackling the issue at its root by educating local women, youth, and religious groups about their rights to a clean and healthy environment. The project will promote the protection of freshwater in the Congo Basin and educate Indigenous women on sustainable agriculture, natural resource protection, and biodiversity. The funds will specifically support awareness campaigns against the Inga dam and meetings that facilitate an exchange between women and youth on renewable energy, gender, and climate justice.
Peru: After Indigenous Peoples were flown by the government to the city of Pucallpa from the remote Yurua and Purús watersheds to receive medical attention, COVID-19 stopped all return flights from the city, leaving the families stranded. With $3,500, Upper Amazon Conservancy is providing 50 stranded Indigenous families with emergency food and supplies, as well as safe transportation back to their communities that are only accessible by plane. Additionally, the group aims to protect the lower Urubamba River watershed from the invasion of a group of farmers who are illegally clearing the forest to grow coca for the cocaine trade. This region contains some of the most intact forests in the Peruvian Amazon, forming the core of the four million-hectare Alto Purús Landscape: one of the most important places on the planet for isolated tribes.
Kenya: In Kenya, our grantees are calling attention to the environmental impacts of inappropriately disposing of personal protective equipment, including masks and gloves. While everyone in Kenya must wear masks or face a fine of $200, there is little to no information about how to dispose of used masks in a sanitary way. Some are washing used masks and repackaging them for resale, a risky practice.
The work grassroots activists are doing today has long term impacts, helping communities to rebuild and overcome the devastating economic, political, and cultural ramifications of the pandemic in the coming months and years, as well as address the root causes of the pandemic itself.
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