Partners refocusing Pangea grant funds to address COVID-19

In April, we reached out to our grant partners to offer our support and flexibility with their grant funds in an effort to support them during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these strong community leaders have already responded, quickly pivoting their work to address community needs. Below are a few examples:

• Muditar in Myanmar has suspended Pangea-funded activities until June 1 when the stay at home order is expected to end. Instead, they are focusing the work of Village Development Teams (VDTs) in villages to set up temporary quarantine areas for migrants returning to the village; some are tarpaulin or bamboo thatch covered areas where there are hand washing stations, latrines and sleeping areas. Food and water are delivered by village family members.

• Child Empowerment Programme in Uganda is quickly producing thousands of masks sewn by graduates of their tailoring program who received training at CEP’s vocational school (with previous funding from Pangea). They will distribute the masks free of charge to health workers and women who are still struggling to sell vegetables in the market to support their families.

• Taa’ Pi’t staff are working from home in Guatemala, using some Pangea funds to create educational material for their students, including on COVID-19, proper hygiene, good nutrition, family gardening and educational games. Called “Learning for Life,” this program will be broadcast in the local Maya language on the community TV channel for the duration of the national quarantine to help students and their families during the pandemic. 

• Ufanisi Women’s Group in Kenya has refocused some of their project grant funds to address the limited access to water and sanitation facilities in local rural villages. They are installing two 6,000-liter water tanks to improve access to safe water for hand washing and basic hygiene, as well as for washing the re-usable menstrual cloth pads. In addition, they are providing hand washing stations and soap, along with instructing villagers in proper hand washing techniques.
  
• Wendo Aszed, Director of Dandelion Africa, provided a perspective on COVID-19 in Kenya in her guest post “Coronavirus and Contraception in Rural Kenya: A View from One of Our Partners.”

Read our message of support to our partners from April 8, 2020.