Over a year after the COVID-19 outbreak was officially declared a global pandemic, the virus continues to spread across the world. Despite the rapid development of effective vaccines, the global population is far from reaching herd immunity and many countries are experiencing huge waves of infection, high death rates, and struggling economies.
At Global Greengrants Fund, an organization that works with grassroots activists in 168 countries, we’ve heard from our network throughout the past year, as different countries, communities, and individuals have been impacted by the pandemic. From widespread lockdowns that challenged access to food in early 2020, to prolific infections in Brazil and India, our grantees and advisors worldwide continue to experience new waves of consequences from COVID-19.
On the positive, we’ve found our network to be amazingly flexible and resilient, finding new ways to adapt to the current situation, and implementing solutions that will help their communities thrive through the current moment and beyond.
Here are four examples of how our grantees are responding to the ongoing epidemic.
Paraguay
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the members of the Bagia Ga Loge Lacheg Toba Qom Indigenous Community have not been able to carry out their usual business activities, including selling their handicraft products, and therefore have had no source of income. Servicio Agrario de Tecnologia y Organizacion Comunitaria (SATOC) will use $5,000 to help the community start beekeeping to generate income, strengthen food security, and protect biodiversity. Specifically, SATOC will plant melliferous species to strengthen the biodiversity of native forests and acquire 30 beehives for the establishment of honey production.
Peru
Carquín is a fishing cove and coastal district in the province of Huaura, Peru. Carquín faces several environmental problems, including pollution from sewage (the waste from the entire province is funneled into the ocean near Carquin) and dynamite fishing and trawling, which destroys natural schools of fish.
Asociación de pescadores artesanales de ribera “Emiliano Ramos Diaz”, Carquin is a local group that aims to address these issues. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the group has lost 13 of its members to the coronavirus.
Early on, there was little awareness about the virus and the organization had no support from the state or any institution. When the group asked for government support, they were told they needed formal registration in order to receive assistance.
A $5,000 grant will be used to re-register the organization, formulate a strategic action plan, hold training workshops about artisanal fishing, campaign for human and marine health, implement a biosanitary protocol, and meet with authorities to address the problem of explosive fishing.
Tonga
The Tonga National Youth Congress will use $5,000 to build stronger community resilience to the COVID-19 epidemic by promoting community awareness and educating about preventative measures, such as practicing good hygiene. The project aims to encourage local farmers and fishermen to continue small income generating activities and small scale farming to contribute to the food security of the country, to establish an emergency community supporting system for COVID19, and to train community police on general health, sanitation and safety practices.
Ghana
In Ghana, due to oil and gas activities, the local fishing communities have reported increased resource conflicts, local institutional corruption, lack of proper sanitation and access to water, low capacity to monitor compliance and enforcement of environmental guidelines, increased cost of living, loss of local sustainable jobs, and human rights violations – all problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A grant will be used to support fishing communities resisting oil and gas development in Ghana. Specifically the funds will be used to produce and distribute a documentary called “Empowering Fishing Communities in Ghana”, and to conduct a number of meetings and press briefings which will bring together six representatives from local CSOs, eight journalists and twelve representatives from the local fishing communities.
The funds will also strengthen the “Just Recovery Media Network”, an independent media reporting organization, in promoting environmental, social, gender, economic justice and sustainable recovery that addresses all the impacts from the current COVID-19 crisis, in addition to inequality, climate change, food shortages, biodiversity loss, and access to healthcare issues experienced by coastal and fishing communities in Ghana.