HI adapts its operations to help with the Covid-19 pandemic
As the coronavirus pandemic spreads to countries already affected by poverty, conflict and natural disasters, HI is adapting its response to the health crisis.
Archive photo | © B. Blondel / HI
Developing countries, increasingly affected by the pandemic, are ill equipped to cope with the impending humanitarian disaster. HI’s goal is to stay by the side of vulnerable individuals and people with disabilities, now more than ever.
HI continues to assist its beneficiaries
HI’s operational teams are adapting their ongoing projects to protect our beneficiaries and staff from the virus in countries where we work and at our head offices.
By taking essential hygiene measures, including simple precautions to stop the spread of the virus, HI will continue to provide vital care, such as rehabilitation and the distribution of essential items.
Group activities, often community-based, are now limited to 10 people.
Inclusive awareness-raising
Building on its experience of cholera and Ebola virus epidemics, HI also plans to launch and expand some projects to help people protect themselves from the virus.
On March 25th, about 25 projects have started to integrate or prepare specific measures. The Covid-19 prevention actions implemented in Mali, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and Libya will be inclusive and accessible, with awareness-raising aids adapted to different disabilities.
We will broadcast radio awareness messages in Chad and provide communication and prevention support to hospitals in Haiti.
We plan to assist our partners and raise their awareness of simple precautions to stop the spread of the virus. Actions will also be implemented in Algeria, Morocco, Chad and Sierra Leone.
HI is engaged in advocacy with local authorities and humanitarian actors to ensure response is adapted to vulnerable individuals. In Madagascar, for example, the association disseminates practical advice for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the awareness-raising actions carried out by local relief teams. And in the Central African Republic, its logistics platform supporting humanitarian organisations is adapting its operations.
