By Tom Tracy | Catholic News Service | Florida – Fearful that the coronavirus pandemic has spread more widely than official numbers suggest, the Haitian government… Read More »Fearful the coronavirus is silently spreading, Haiti braces for pandemic
The Congregation for the Eastern Churches has set up an emergency fund responding to the urging of the Holy Father not to abandon those who are suffering, especially the poorest, during the global crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.
On behalf of Pope Francis, ten ventilators were donated and will be installed in the three hospitals supported by the project “Open Hospitals”, started in 2016 thanks to the initiative of Cardinal Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio in Syria, and in partnership with the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
On March 20, Mexico closed schools nationwide to prevent the spread of COVID-19. A few days earlier, on March 17, Crecemos had already sent home the children who come regurarly to the educational center located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Oaxaca, Mexico. In their bags, Crecemos staff helped them pack homework, instructions on how to wash hands and keep social distance and their musical instrument.
Anny, a Venezuelan refugee, got moved to Santa Catarina, Brazil thanks to AVSI’s “Welcomed Through Work” initiative, funded by the Bureau of Population, Migration and Refugees. Though she’s new to the area, she was invited to participate in two campaigns designed to raise awareness about COVID-19 among refugees in Brazil.
On March 18th, Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez imposed a mandatory nationwide quarantine in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Since then, the economy has been hit hard and the people, many of whom struggle withpoverty and hunger, are concerned about how long the quarantine can last before they start to suffer from lost income, job losses and rising debt levels. In Argentina, 49.3% of the economically active population work in the informal sector, making a quarantine especially challenging to livelihoods.
