Coronavirus International : Your donations' impact

The pandemic has had a major impact on the living conditions of people living infragile contextsand has heightened social inequity: for households in precarious situations, restrictions on their movements have led to the loss of all means of subsistence. Workers who relied on small day jobs had no safety net, and millions of people have been left in extreme poverty.

That’s why Swiss Solidarity, in collaboration with SRG SSR and private media concerns, held the“Coronavirus International” National Day of Solidarityon 22 October 2020. This fundraiser amassed almost CHF 9 million in donations, enabling us to fund 15 aid projects run by our partner NGOs in 15 different countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Seven other projects are currently being analysed and could receive funding of some CHF 2 million.

Your solidarity reaches well beyond our borders

Whether they go toward distributing personal protective equipment in refugee camps, providing lessons to young people over the radio, delivering health care, setting up handwashing stations or organising prevention campaigns, your donations make it possible to provide concrete and effective assistance to people in need all over the world.

Check out this article for concrete examples of projects we’ve funded:

Support for a suffering sector

Thanks to your donations, our partner NGOHelvetasis supporting 1,000 tourism-dependent families in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, where nearly 300 hotels, restaurants and family businesses were left without customers due to the lockdown and restrictions on people’s movements.

To help mitigate the economic losses that came with the onset of winter and the low season, these households were initially provided with emergency food aid and equipment to set up vegetable gardens to bolster self-sufficiency. Now, the hotel and restaurant industry is receiving support in the form of equipment to protect against viruses, as well as training for optimal hotel management once tourism resumes.

Ten health centres are also being provided with personal protective equipment for medical staff and patients, and training for medical staff to deliver primary health care services such as maternity care along with patient screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.

Financial assistance for 3,000 families

In the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh, our partner NGOSolidar Suisseis using donations to deliver financial support to local and Rohingya families whose daily lives have been turned upside down by the containment measures in order to help them overcome the economic and health impacts of the crisis.

Solidar Suisseis also distributing basic hygiene kits and running information campaigns to reduce the risk of infection among these populations.

Help for women in Gaza

Our partner NGO,cfd, the feminist peace organisation, supports women in Gaza who are victims of physical or psychological violence. The organisation has responded to the increased risk of domestic violence that developed during lockdown—caused, among other things, by economic stress and lack of a place to isolate oneself at home—and the closure of one of Gaza’s two women’s shelters due to restrictions imposed during the pandemic.

Thanks to your donations, the only remaining shelter is providing girls and women with access to legal aid as well as online psychosocial services to help them regain their confidence and build resilience.

20,000 hygiene kits distributed in Brazil

In the northern Brazilian states of Roraima and Amazonas, many families are at risk of falling into extreme poverty. Thanks to your donations, we were able to fund our partner NGO Caritas and its project to support these most vulnerable populations, whose situation has worsened in recent months.

The organisation widely distributed hygiene kits containing soap, masks and hand sanitiser, all needed to boost existing protective measures, and provided some families with financial support.

17 more hospital beds for Mosul

Devastated by war, the city of Mosul in northern Iraq has been left particularly vulnerable to the pandemic. Our NGO partnerMédecins Sans Frontières(MSF) has been on the ground there for many years and launched an emergency operation to boost patient capacity at Al Salam University Hospital.

Thanks to your donations, nearly 440 people will be able to access emergency health care, such as oxygen therapy to treat coronavirus infections.