The rapid spread of the coronavirus has profoundly impacted the work of Finn Church Aid and required an immediate response to newly arisen needs.
Finn Church Aid (FCA) has granted nearly half a million euros worth of emergency support to curb the spread of the coronavirus in its program countries.
FCA provides information in refugee settlements and trains teachers, school committees and community workers on how to protect communities. Schools and refugees are equipped with soap, hand sanitizers, disinfectants, and buckets. Information is distributed via radio, SMS and megaphones as well as through trainings that adhere to guidelines of national authorities.
FCA distributes hygiene supplies and conducts educational work in Uganda, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Nepal, and Cambodia.
By now, we all speak “covid” fluently. As with any recently learned language, it makes at times sense to reflect what we are saying. Everyone agrees that the post-covid world will not be the same as the world before. We speak of it as a central, neutral-sounding concept that we call “the new normal”.
Speaking about the new normal is meant to help people adjust to a new reality. Because this is a global crisis, all countries are affected in one way or another. There is a readiness to accept many profound changes to our lives, though in some countries this is much more painful than in others.
As professionals working with development cooperation and humanitarian interventions, we use the word ‘resilience’ to describe how societies can react to a crisis. Resilience can be understood as the ability of individuals, communities and countries to cope with and recover from shocks.
In simple terms, resilience is “the capacity to bounce back”. Humanitarians talk of “building back better” – not only bouncing back to what once was but actually improving it by bouncing forward.
Inequality, emissions and exclusion were never supposed to be normal
The question is: what will Covid-19 pressure us to do? This is what defines the new normal.
I am wondering though about the word “normal”. Many things that used to be normal before Covid-19 were never supposed to be normal at all. Poverty in an insanely rich world is not normal – the world’s 26 richest people own as much as the poorest 50 per cent.
Travelling from point a to b with connecting flights that use double the fuel is cheaper than taking a direct flight. Excluding large groups of people from political decision-making can still be called democracy. Accepting that a member of the UN Security Council openly participates in violent conflict seems to be possible.
With most countries being in financial difficulties in a post-covid world, tough choices need to be made on how we rebuild better societies than before. The debate on what needs to be done is only starting, with the world not having any precedents for ‘collectively pulling the emergency stop’.
The core of the Covid-19 response: leave no one behind
What can help us in this debate?
We should, for example, stop talking about humans as animals (herd immunity). We must focus on how we as humans collectively can overcome Covid-19 by valuing human dignity and every human life, using, for example, the principle of leaving no one behind.
For FCA, it means that we adjust our programming, and push the boundary even further. We – as well as others – learn that digitalization can indeed be a programme enabler, may it be reaching out through socially distant town halls or enable distant learning through ‘Interactive Audio Instruction’.
We indeed stay socially close and engaged and care for one another – physically distant can still be socially close.
We certainly need to ensure that the “new normal” is bouncing us forward collectively and globally, rather than allowing questionable political decisions to be labelled as normal and justifiable.
We need to avoid bouncing back to the ‘old normal’ or even below it.
This mindset helps us to deal with current disruptions on a massive scale and also to prepare for future disruptions. Distance learning capabilities may become so normal that blended learning is globally taken to a totally new level that also works during the next disruption.
Perhaps one of the better things about speaking covid fluently is the “stay home, save lives” idea. People have gotten used to the thought that they have to restrict their own lives – not so much because of being in danger themselves, but especially to protect others, particularly risk groups.
The principle of leaving no one behind is indeed at the core of the Covid-19 response. As an idea, it has the potential to inform a beautiful and altruistic new normal.
The author, Matthias Wevelsiep, works as Senior Operations and Program Manager for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers Secretariat.
You have all seen the pictures: At the conclusion of a peace process, when representatives of conflict parties shake their hands. Peace building is about bringing people (back) together. It is about reuniting people. Sitting at the same table. Reducing distance.
Covid-19 is tough on us in so many ways, it changes everything (at least temporary) and it also changed how we make peace. Our usual responses to overcome disagreement or conflict – like important symbolic acts of shaking hands, or even hugging – are indeed out of the question. Shuttle diplomacy – flying people to a neutral location to discuss and negotiate – feels like a relic from old times.
Peace building practitioners, like so many others, need to find other ways of working during this crisis. But first: why talk about peace building now – isn’t Covid-19 a health question and everything else comes only after?
It is true and justified for health to be the centre of attention, yet as Covid-19 changes the world we know on a global scale, the virus affects all societies deeply. The virus does not care about sectors. The virus’ impact on societies is highly likely to differ a lot from country to country, in terms of timing and depth, and this relates eventually also to questions of violent conflict and security.
In fragile context, where Finn Church Aid mostly operates, institutions and sectors are not prepared for a crisis such as this, and there are many countries in which even small shocks can make the difference between fragile peace and violent conflict. Even though the virus makes all countries appear to sit at the same table, in practice we are not: some countries will be much more affected than others, with a risk of the crisis translating into renewed violent conflict.
Even when times are challenging, even near-future predictions remain very blurry, and solutions difficult to find, let’s get to work and see what we can do. Let’s turn the spotlight to things that are hopeful and that may help us get to see beyond the layers of crisis looming at the horizon:
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s appeal for a worldwide cessation of hostilities amid the Covid-19 pandemic. At least one conflict party in twelve countries has responded to the call for a global ceasefire. In other parts of the world, external actors may also reduce their hostilities, and even though this may be temporary, it may lead to a new window of negotiations. It is central to support and strengthen peace building where possible, as the underlying conditions for peace are indeed not in support of a more peaceful world. Rather alarmingly, an increase in typical conflict drivers such as inequality, poverty, weak governance, or missing opportunities for political participation may indeed increase the risk of violent conflict in many societies.
- Physically distant, yet digitally close and social. Many societies are forced to see each other more online, even though many people prefer meeting face to face. This may lead to a different level of how we can be comfortable with each other online, as the next best thing after seeing someone in person. In a way, people around the world become digitally closer, and this may translate into opportunities for dialogue and conflict transformation. It is – though – also a challenge, because only half of the world is online , which may lead to even more negative consequences for disconnected people in quarantine.
- The initial response to Covid-19 has been a national and inward-looking one in many countries. But let’s forget about the absurd examples – the global bidding war on medical masks or totally ill–timed reduction of funding for WHO – for a moment. Covid-19 can still become the case proving that global collaboration (for example in overcoming this crisis and its consequences) benefits all.
We – as global, currently digital peace builders – need to find ways to react on those points above. Finding ways to sustain fragile peace even in contexts that will be hit hard by this crisis, in societies with very limited own coping mechanisms.
We need to build on all networks that we have, the formal and informal. Here, for example, religious actors may be able to reach out to those that are digitally disconnected. Faith leaders may indeed reach the difficult to reach. Or young peacebuilders with their ability (as youth do) to rethink how else we can communicate, even when it is difficult. Or women responding digitally to support victims of gender-based violence, an issue amplified by families not being able to leave homes during the quarantine.
Yes, fighting against Covid-19 has started with health. Some of the key actors during the initial crisis, such as the Robert Koch Institute, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) and so on, have shown that fighting a pandemic you need to share information and learn from each other very quickly. When dealing with an invisible enemy that spreads exponentially at first, there is no time to waste.
As digital peace builders, utilizing our networks, we also need to learn from this crisis. Because when the storm after the virus hits, disrupting societies further through the threat of violent conflict, we need to be at our best-supporting people to sustain peace, rebuild trust in institutions and help societies recover. However admirably resilient those societies are – support will be needed.
Matthias Wevelsiep works as Senior Operations and Program Manager for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers Secretariat.
Illustration: Carla Ladau
For children and young people, school is much more than attending classes. Schools provide safety and protection from abuse and violence.
The coronavirus has created an unprecedented situation in which most of the world’s children and young people are out of school. According to UNESCO, school closures affect already 91 percent of the world’s pupils.
Out of these 1.54 billion children and young people, just under half, 743 million, are girls. More than 111 million of these girls live in the least developed countries, where having access to education was difficult even before the crisis.
In addition, nine out of ten of the 1.8 billion young people in the world live in developing countries, where opportunities for long-distance education are scarce.
When schools close, children and young people no longer spend their days with their peers or under the supervision of their teachers. Without going to school, many are also left without school meals and healthcare.
No one knows how long the pandemic will continue. Instead of weeks, it is likely a matter of months.
What did we learn from Ebola?
During the Ebola epidemic, schools in West Africa remained closed for 6–8 months. During this time, the number of teen pregnancies went up, in parts of Sierra Leone by up to 65 percent. Countries afflicted by the epidemic also saw increases in domestic violence and maternal mortality.
Several international studies have looked into the experiences of children and young people during Ebola. When children were interviewed for the studies, a direct link between schools closing and an increase in child labour was found. The children described having to take more responsibility for providing a livelihood at home once their families’ means of subsistence weakened.
When the children and young people were asked what they were most worried about during the Ebola epidemic, their primary concern turned out to be schools closing and the effects this would have on their future. The children were afraid to go back to school because they were worried about Ebola still spreading in them. The same risk exists in the current situation with the coronavirus.
Long-distance studying was rare in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which where the countries that suffered the most from Ebola. Just 30–40 percent of children said they studied at home during the epidemic. Their studies mainly consisted of going through old notes. Most parents cannot read or write, so they were unable to support their children in their long-distance studies.
Schools can prepare for distance learning by printing learning materials for students to take home.
In the regions affected by Ebola, some long-distance studying was organised over the radio. However, this proved ineffective at times. Not all parents could afford to buy a radio or the batteries for it, and the restrictions around gatherings made it impossible for several children in the neighbourhood to gather around one radio.
School closures due to the coronavirus came as a surprise in many countries, and there was no time to make preparations. The lower the level of income in a country, the harder it is to organise long-distance learning.
Learning must continue even though schools close
Long-distance education can be of high quality as long as it is carefully prepared. In low-income countries, all methods of long-distance learning that require using the internet are difficult for learners to reach, and are often expensive and complicated to use.
However, it is important to support learning at home in order to keep the number of school dropouts as low as possible. Radio broadcasts remain the most cost-effective long-distance education solution that reaches the biggest possible number of children and young people. Keeping in mind the lessons learned from the time of Ebola, it is important to make sure as many families as possible have a radio at home. Finn Church Aid (FCA) distributes solar-powered radios to families, in order to give the children access to long-distance education.
FCA has made cooperation agreements with radio stations in the North Kenyan refugee settlement area. Ideally, the pedagogical expertise of teachers is employed in preparing the radio lessons, and teaching is paced so that education is directed at different age groups at different times.
Maintaining a connection with school is important in order to ensure schooling to continue after the crisis is over. The longer children and young people are out of school, the more likely it is that they will not return.
WhatsApp to assist in training teachers
During the state of emergency, it is important to stay connected with not only the pupils but also the teachers. This helps prepare for the reopening of schools once the crisis is over.
In Bangladesh, FCA trains teachers during the pandemic via WhatsApp. Long-distance education enables teachers to develop their expertise, stay motivated, and keep in touch with one another.
WhatsApp is also used to share information about how to stop the virus from spreading. The teachers can then share this information further in their own communities.
It is important to start looking forward and prepare for the children and youth to return to school. Once the schools have re-opened, it may be necessary to speed up teaching and revise learning content, as well as offer psychosocial support for the learners.
Education, even in the form of long-distance, gives hope of a better future during crisis, which is especially important for children and young people. Now, learning – as well as hand-washing – must continue.
Minna Peltola
Senior Education Specialist
Elina Kostiainen
Communications Specialist
Translation: Leena Vuolteenaho
Photos: Jari Kivelä
Read more: New COVID -19 advocacy brief Learning must go on by Finn Church Aid, Unicef, Save the Children UK and partners.
The global pandemic is not only a risk to people’s health – it causes deep insecurity and fear for people’s livelihoods in countries with weaker social security systems.
The coronavirus affects people in the global South as well as the North but developing countries face an even greater threat because of weaker health care systems. The same goes for restrictions designed to curb the spread of the virus: entrepreneurs that lose their livelihoods do not have the same social security systems in developing countries as in many European countries.
FCA supports livelihoods in 13 countries, such as Nepal, Cambodia and Uganda. Entrepreneurs often start businesses based on handicrafts, mechanics, retailing, local services or farming.
Rural businesses evolve around agriculture or the processing of agricultural products, like the preservation of food. Business activities take place in markets, and sales drop immediately when public gatherings are prohibited and markets closed.
Service-based businesses lose their customers due to movement restrictions and reduced purchasing power. Small retailers and the hospitality sector are hit hard.
Handicraft workers can continue their production as long as they have materials but their sales are affected as well. Any entrepreneur can face difficulties in paying back loans if they lack an income.
Farming usually continues uninterrupted and governments do their best to keep food markets open. Longer term problems arise if the harvested products do not reach the markets, as ability to plant during the next season depends on the income a farmer fetches from each harvest. In addition to individual farmers, this can have a wide-spread effect on the availability of food.
Debt reorganisation key after the corona crisis
Village based cooperatives and saving groups are at the core of FCA’s and the Women’s Bank’s operations. They support their members in various ways, for instance through loans for business development. FCA supported cooperatives can in these cases offer debt reorganisation.
For instance, after the earthquake in Nepal, loans were granted interest-free months. Debt reorganisation and support to resuming business activities are key after the corona crisis.
The income of families is also affected by the reliance on labour migration in low-income countries. In Nepal, as much as 30 percent of the country’s GDP consists of money received from migrant workers. An interruption in their payments has far-reaching consequences at home.
Besides losing their income, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have difficulties or are not able to reach their families due to travel restrictions, such as closed borders.
The coronavirus is a particular burden for countries that are already fragile, and for families that are already vulnerable. Besides the risk of falling sick or losing livelihoods, families face the threat of food insecurity and children a disruption of their education. Poverty puts people at risk for abuse.
It is crucial that we already look past the pandemic and support developing countries in this global crisis.
Text: Ulla Sarasalmi
Ulla Sarasalmi is Finn Church Aid’s Senior Livelihoods Adviser.
The coronavirus pandemic does not mean that other crises are less urgent but it has rapidly restricted work with development cooperation, humanitarian aid, peacebuilding and climate change. We now have to fight many battles at the same time.
When the severity of the coronavirus dawned upon the world, I was in a remote location in South Sudan. In New Fangak’s swamp, movement is possible either by foot or boat. There are no roads or cars, and the isolation is sealed with only one flight a week.
New Fangak was severely hit by the conflict that broke out in South Sudan in 2013. The ruins of a hospital serve as a reminder of the crisis – and of its vulnerability to yet another one.
For the time being, New Fangak’s inaccessibility might keep it safe from the coronavirus. The people are currently concerned about the severe lack of food. Unprecedented floods had wiped out crops and drowned cattle. Many survive on porridge made from tree leaves.
Imagine being at the brink of famine, at the frontlines of climate change and on top of that facing the threat of a deadly global pandemic.
The pandemic poses a severe risk to work against climate change
The battle against the coronavirus has put the world in a difficult position with respect to its most vulnerable people.
People in countries with existing humanitarian crises are particularly exposed to the coronavirus, especially the world’s 65 million refugees and internally displaced people. Development and humanitarian aid operations have to adapt to tackle the virus.
At the same time, organisations are forced to scale back their operations and call home international staff. Education projects are halted when governments close schools, peace efforts are delayed with bans on gatherings, and humanitarian aid workers avoid travelling to reduce the risk of transmitting the coronavirus to remote locations with no healthcare.
Some of the restrictions designed for tackling the pandemic might look like they would serve the battle against climate change. The coronavirus has rapidly restricted global travel and consumption, far more abruptly and efficiently than the anti-climate change movement. But it is not an achievement. The pandemic actually poses severe risks for work against climate change as prosperity declines and suffering economies urgently need stimulation. Emissions can even increase when industries are back in business.
The political will for financial commitments to tackling climate change might decrease as a result of the cost of fighting the coronavirus. The same risk is evident for any other crisis as major donors fear a global recession might hit them at home.
But the economic decline will have more severe effects on low-income countries, like those in Sub-Saharan Africa. Millions of families live from hand to mouth. A woman working at any local market usually spends her daily income to feed her family in the evening. When she is forced to close her business her family suffers the consequences the very next day.
A prolonged crisis with societal lockdowns risks exacerbating poverty and cause discontent.
People in fragile countries like South Sudan are facing multiple crises but governments and organisations are forced to restrict development cooperation and humanitarian work to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
We have to respond to many crises at the same time
It is clear that we need to fight the coronavirus today. The need for health care support, dissemination of information, thorough hygiene practices and social distancing is acute.
But we cannot afford to forget everything else. At the other end of the urgency-scale are much-needed systemic changes to battle the climate crisis. We cannot give up on the need to rethink transport, infrastructure, food and energy production and much more. We also need to continue peacebuilding efforts and respond to food crises that are key for stability.
While the battle against the coronavirus is a hundred-meter sprint – and the race is well underway – the battle against climate change is a marathon, and all other crises fall in between. We just have to run all races at the same time.
Because all crises are bound together by the need for global cooperation and resilient societies.
Erik Nyström is Finn Church Aid’s Manager of International Communications.
Hand washing and social distancing are key to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.
Imagine yourself living in a tight, designated space where you have to share one latrine together with tens or even hundreds of people. You also have to queue for water and food supplies.
You live with tens of thousands of people without a chance to avoid daily human contact and receive information that a highly contagious disease is spreading from human to human. You learn that this disease could require intensive care to save your life but you know that you and your family have practically no way of accessing any of the hospitals that can provide this care for you.
It is hard to even picture this scenario if you are not living as a refugee in one of the world’s crowded refugee camps or belong to the poorest section of a developing country’s population.
Currently, over 70 million people around the world have been forced to leave their homes because of conflicts, prolonged crises and disasters – 29 million of them live as refugees.
Most of these refugees – 84 per cent – live in low- or middle-income countries, like Uganda, Somalia, Kenya and Jordan where Finn Church Aid operates.
The World Health Organisation WHO declared the coronavirus epidemic a pandemic on March 11th. It means that the spread of the coronavirus from one country to another can no longer be stopped. Officials can only slow down the pandemic to avoid worst-case victim estimates.
Inequality shows even in hand hygiene
An essential part of slowing down the pandemic is maintaining sufficient hand hygiene and avoiding human contact. An unfortunate fact is that people do not have the same possibilities to even wash their hands with soap. This is a challenge for people already in a vulnerable position.
In places like refugee camps or slum areas, human contact is also hard if not impossible to avoid because they are densely populated areas. For instance, the world’s largest refugee camp Cox’s Bazar hosts 850,000 people on an area roughly the size of Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
By mid-March, Bangladesh had three coronavirus cases, but the number could be higher.
In refugee camps, latrines are often shared by a large number of people. Hygiene standards are poor already without an epidemic like the coronavirus. The poorest areas in developing countries face the same challenge.
The people forced to live in refugee camps have already experienced hardship and prolonged crisis conditions that can weaken their immune system. Many suffer from long-term illnesses that make them vulnerable to infections, and they ultimately form a risk group for the coronavirus.
While populations in Africa are generally young, sub-Saharan Africa is home to 68 per cent of the world’s 38 million HIV positive people. The coronavirus is a more severe threat to their already weaker immunity than it is to others of their age.
People in refugee camps do not have access to healthcare that corresponds to their needs. They particularly lack the intensive care facilities required to save lives from respiratory infections that the coronavirus can cause.
The world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries often suffer from a lack of proper health and sanitation services as well as clean water. These resources are at least not accessible for refugees.
Refugees might also be left without information about how to prevent infections from spreading.
Hand washing prevents many kinds of infections but the possibility to wash hands with clean water and soap is not self-evident in the world’s poorest areas and refugee camps.
One can pass the disease to tens of others
The coronavirus is known to be highly contagious in social contacts, and also those without any symptoms can spread the virus in their surroundings. That is why social distancing – reducing the number of human contacts – is key to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.
Families are often big and family members stay close to each other in cramped spaces. One infected person could pass on the disease to the entire family – even three generations of it.
Small business owners are also highly vulnerable to the effects of the disease. People that depend on service- and retail-based livelihoods have to deal with other people. It exposes them to viral infections and they can also pass on the virus to a large number of people before any symptoms appear. When falling sick, they might lose the livelihood that supports their entire family.
The pandemic delays refugees’ access to safety
The pandemic creates an additional challenge for refugees: to stay where they are.
The UN’s refugee agency UNHCR is worried that the coronavirus pandemic can increase discrimination and racism towards refugees, even though the virus is more likely to spread with regular travellers from one part of the world to another.
There is still hope. In 2014-2015, West Africa suffered from the spread of the Ebola virus. It killed 11,000 people before the disease was contained. In addition to the death toll, Ebola caused severe economic losses to those already in a vulnerable position. But much worse could have happened.
Ebola spread mostly in fragile states like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. It also reached other countries but never spread widely on other continents.
The key to defeating the disease was that people received enough information and avoided contact with others.
Text: Elisa Rimaila
Translation: Erik Nyström
Picture: Carla Ladau
Finn Church Aid (FCA) prepares to deliver hygiene products and awareness campaigns to prevent the coronavirus from spreading within refugee camps and settlements.
People living in refugee camps and settlements are already in a vulnerable position and suffer from a lack of hygiene products and health care facilities. A spread of the coronavirus could have devastating consequences.
FCA works as the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR’s partner in the education sector and arranges education for 120,000 learners in Uganda’s refugee settlements.
“Schools are full and there are a lot of learners. It is now essential to improve hygiene conditions”, says FCA’s Country Director for Uganda, Wycliffe Nsheka.
“We arrange hygiene training for learners, teachers and health committees at the settlements. We increase the availability of hand washing facilities, sanitisers and other products for disinfection. We also print information brochures in different languages and disseminate the same information on the radio.”
Kenya closed down its schools on Monday March 16th. FCA supported schools and pre-schools are also closed. FCA now prepares an information campaign on the importance of washing hands.
The campaign will run on the radio, targeting children and their parents while schools remain closed, says FCA’s Country Director for Kenya, John Bongei. FCA plans to distribute hand sanitisers, soap and buckets also to the children’s parents.
“We will also share information from the Kenyan government on lectures held on radio. We are scouting service providers to support long distance learning, in case the schools remain closed for a longer period”, Bongei says.
FCA’s country programme in Somalia also takes measures to improve hygiene conditions in schools.