Atlantic Institute: Helping Communities through COVID-19
Resource type: Video
Atlantic Institute |
Solidarity grants to protect communities during covid-19
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Atlantic Fellows are carrying out projects designed to minimize the impact of COVID-19 on endangered and vulnerable communities worldwide. As from April 2020, more than 70 Fellows successfully applied for a total of 57 Solidarity Grants – short-term, rapid response funding from the Atlantic Institute.
The scale and severity of the pandemic has affected countries and individuals worldwide, emotionally, physically and economically. Atlantic Fellows’ main focus is to address structural underlying inequities, but many have also focused this year on responding to exceptional need at this critical time. Atlantic Fellows have received grants from the Atlantic Institute ranging from £500 to £5,000 for each project, which are led by individuals or as joint collaborative projects involving Fellows in the same program or across programs.
The projects benefit communities in over 20 specific countries (including the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Liberia, Nigeria, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, USA, France, Belgium and the UK.) Some projects will cover a specific region of the world; there are also single projects offering support to communities across several countries.
The projects range from e-learning and home-schooling in Indonesia and Zimbabwe, to the dissemination of information in multiple languages about how to stay safe and reduce the risk of transmitting the virus. One Fellow has set up a teledental kiosk in rural Nigeria to ensure a form of continued health care, another is using storytelling and theater to amplify the voices of people suffering due to domestic abuse, or job losses due to a curtailment in economic activity. There are also projects to distribute food, and seed to create community gardens, to try to prevent food insecurity.
View original article on the Atlantic Fellows website.