Responding to COVID-19 in Central America & Mexico
Our partners are facing unprecedented threats towards not only to their health, but in their ability to support vulnerable populations in their communities.
Our local parntner, ACUDESBAL in El Salvador, advising Bajo Lempa citizens on their comunnity TV channel about best-practices in hygiene and the prevention of COVID-19.
As COVID-19 continues to disrupt Canada and our friends in Central America and Mexico, we want to update you on what Horizons and its partners are doing in response. We would like to note that in most countries, as in Canada, public health measures including social distancing and strict curfews, have been put in place. All our partners are observing all the necessary measures, and many are also leading messaging to ensure others in the community also observe these guidelines. We hope this overview can provide you some comfort, peace of mind, and offer some hope amid this pandemic.
One of the poster distributed online regarding best-practices in hygiene and prevention of COVID-19 by our partner PIES de Occidente in Guatemala.
In Canada, Horizons has ramped up its response to the Migrant Worker Outreach Program by expanding availability of lifeline care packages that will be given to migrant workers. Every year, migrant workers play a key part in supporting farmers and contributing to our own food security here in Canada. This year is no different. As part of the Quarantine Act, migrant workers must remain under quarantine for 14 days after arriving to Canada, by law. While the government is planning to provide farmers with financial support to help their workers quarantine, the guidelines of what may be provided for migrant workers directly is not clear. Horizons is working to ensure that all migrant workers in Northumberland County receive essential items, such as food and toiletries that will last them the totality of their 14 day quarantine. With community health and legal aid partners, we will also continue to provide support in Spanish and English via telephone; and will support farmers and migrant workers outfit their homes for migrant workers. In addition, as some of you may know, Horizons also has a thrift shop where we receive donated goods that are then resold with profits going towards supporting our operations. We are re-appropriating these gently used goods and providing them to migrant workers and our community for free.
In Mexico, our partners in Chiapas continue to support their communities through different initiatives. For instance, the Economic and Social Development of Indigenous Mexicans (DESMI) is helping share health and culturally relevant information through social media channels to Indigenous community members. While DESMI has cancelled activities, beneficiaries who received seeds and participated in the food security project are continuing to depend on their agricultural projects to feed their families, and DESMI staff remain ready to support them from home. In addition, as migrants and refugees face uncertainty and insecurity at the border, our partner Formacion y Capacitacion AC (FOCA) has ramped up advocacy to ensure local authorities respect the rights of migrants and provide adequate health services to them. FOCA has increased its work towards ensuring women, migrant and Mexican citizens, have information on who to contact and what to do in situations where they or their children face violence. After all, across the region and the world, COVID19 has amplified risks of gender-based violence, putting millions of women and children in peril.
In Guatemala, our partner the Association for Health Promotion, Research, and Education (PIES de Occidente) has closed their offices, but their teams are working hard from home: sourcing and donating medical supplies and equipment including masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and soap, having public health educators connect via phone with their patients and the network of traditional Indigenous midwives, and ramping up public service announcements in K’iche both on preventing the spread and dispelling myths around COVID-19. PIES and Horizons are currently working to adjust the final stages of the Maternal Newborn and Child Health program to both support the efforts to combat COVID-19 and ensure that we can deliver on our promised results. In addition, while our partners the Women’s Association for the Development of Sacatepéquez (AFEDES) have closed their weaving schools, they have continued to voice concerns of Indigenous community members calling for an equitable response. For example, AFEDES is advocating through the National Movement of Weavers and through its advocacy channels for the Guatemalan government to increase access to water in their communities. Many do not have water or have minimal access limiting their ability to follow hand-washing guidance. Historically, the voices of Indigenous communities in Guatemala have been marginalized in policy spaces. Today, Indigenous Mayan people have the highest rates of poverty and extreme poverty in the country.
In El Salvador, our partner the Intercommunity Association of Communities Working Together for the Economic and Social Development of Lower Lempa (ACUDESBAL) has been actively informing and accompanying partners in community responses in the Bajo Lempa Region, one of the poorest in the country. ACUDESBAL has previously worked with community volunteers and stakeholders to coordinate responses to disasters, the organization is now using that expertise to ensure the needs of the community, particularly those that are elderly, disabled, and most vulnerable are met. El Salvador was one of the first countries to close its borders and implement quarantine measures and create temporary shelters for those in precarious living situations. ACUDESBAL has been at the forefront of advocating and ensuring that government and local authorities pay special attention to conditions in these shelters to prevent massive contagion in these centres.
In Honduras, the Women’s Movement for Peace “Visitación Padilla” (Las Chonas) has taken on various initiatives to address gender-based violence and increase protection oversight in the response. At the start of the quarantine put in place in March, Las Chonas called on the Honduran government to put in place specific policies and procedures to increase support for initiatives to address violence against women and girls. Before the crisis, Honduras had one of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in the region, with as many as 1 woman being killed every day. Las Chonas are also working across several communication mediums to ensure women know what numbers and support to call in situations where they face violence in their homes. They have also been at the forefront of delivery of equipment and aid, by providing protection oversight and support for women and vulnerable individuals receiving these items. In addition, the cyberactivist group “Generation Chonas,” a group made up of university students trained by Las Chonas on cyberactivism, continues to lead conversations online around gender roles and healthy relationships during this time. Building on messaging from the government that asks citizens to report those violating Covid19 social distance rules, the cyberactivists are also using this as an opportunity to raise awareness of responsibility of all citizens to also report cases of gender-based violence and help survivors.
Our partner Visitacion Padilla in Honduras providing key messaging and contacts for identifying gender violence and reporting methods. It’s expected that as a result of COVID-19, violence against women and femicide will increase in Honduras and around the world.
Women in Nicaragua are receiving emergency food kits containing corn, rice, and beans at the MEC headquarters in Managua, Nicaragua.
In Nicaragua, our partners in the absence of government directives put in place their own measures based on the advice of the World Health Organization. The Association of Indigenous Women of the Atlantic (AMICA) began informing community members about safe social distancing measures and stressing the need for increased handwashing. They also continue to do their best to support traditional authorities in providing guidance during this time and continuing to help women access justice. Our partner, the María Elena Cuadra Working and Unemployed Women’s Movement (MEC) who works across several municipalities also put in place early measures to keep volunteers and staff safe. In the last few weeks, alongside human rights organizations, MEC also stepped up advocacy to ensure restrictions are grounded in public health concerns and will not be used to further infringe on people’s freedoms or rights. Additionally, MEC is now distributing emergency food items to female workers that lost their jobs or were suspended without salary. The lack of government support and enforcement of employment laws protecting workers is putting a heavy strain on households that were already living in a vulnerable condition, in particular female-headed households. Following the closing of many Maquiladoras, which are foreign-owned textile companies, MEC also raised attention to the increasing number of workers, mostly women who are being fired without due pay or forced to take vacation days. They continue documenting these cases, providing legal aid, and supporting their network of Labour Rights promoters to ensure safety in all factories.
In Costa Rica, the Terraba Indigenous communities, who have limited and in most cases no access to health infrastructure, closed their roads to minimize the possibility of contagion. Before the crisis, our partner the Women’s Organization of Mano de Tigre Orcuo-Dbön (Manos de Tigre) worked with females-headed households in agricultural livelihood initiatives ranging from produce to fish to livestock farming. With limited supply chains and access to markets, these initiatives are now playing a key role in supporting not only the food security of those families, but of the community overall. Mano de Tigre also continues to play an important role in alerting authorities and mitigating risks due to ongoing fires and conflict related to land-disputes that started earlier in 2020 and which continue to take place. In addition, although our partner the Association for Integral Development (ADI) of Punta Mala had to halt construction of a park funded by Horizons, it is working actively in Emergency Response and COVID-19 prevention in the Southwestern part of the country. Together with the municipality, volunteers and a WhatsApp network that includes most community members, the ADI is quickly mobilizing resources and information to identify homes that need support. For instance, they are identifying homes that do not have access to water or that may have issues with water, to ensure that they have water pipes fixed quickly or identify a safe water collection point. They are also supporting the outfitting and management of shelters in the community, including a community centre and schools that are now used as quarantine spaces.
In Panama, our partner the Ngobe Cultural Action (ACUN) is actively working with 30 other organizations in the country to build a rapid-response network. ACUN is one of the leading organizations informing response for the Indigenous Ngobe population in Panama. The Ngobe peoples live in the northern part of Panama, most live in poverty or extreme poverty and must travel long distances to access any medical care. Building on trust and relationships ACUN has with Ngobe community members and traditional authorities, they are actively working to map needs and build a network to share information. Moreover, since April is also the month where Ngobe communities farm, ACUN is currently working to increase their access to seeds and tools. With limited resources already existing in communities, increasing their farming capacity will be key to the survival of many in these areas. ACUN foresees an increase of food insecurity in the country as cases rise, many communities that form the informal sector and live outside urban centres will be disadvantaged due to the economic impact of the crisis and changing supply chains. ACUN hopes their early intervention now will prevent a food crisis in the northern region.
As always, we remain committed towards transparency and accountability. We are working actively within Horizons and with sister organizations to identify best practices and put in place actions that will safeguard development gains made in the last few years. While this is a new challenge for all of us, we remain hopeful that after this crisis, we will be able to continue our work with a renewed sense of responsibility towards building a better tomorrow for all.
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