“We will die of starvation before we die of Coronavirus.”
This is what GoPhil partners are hearing from the communities.
GoPhil partners around the world address unique and highly-localized challenges, but in the height of this global crisis, all are turning their focus to one imminent and global concern: responding to communities’ most urgent, essential needs.
As firm believers in community-led and trust-based philanthropy, we shifted our focus during this global emergency and developed the Rapid Response Fund. With your support we are able to provide agile financial assistance and respond to partners’ and communities’ most critical needs, including the purchase of emergency medicine and supplies for patients, providing meals to vulnerable children and families, safety equipment for program staff working in the field, and much, much more.
Though GoPhil grants typically focus on seeing communities THRIVE, the Rapid Response Fund is helping people SURVIVE.
RAPID RESPONSE FUNDS AT WORK
Vikalp Sansthan
INDIAVikalp Sansthan
Providing emergency food parcels and support to 1,150 families in the tribal villages of Gogunda.
PHASE
NEPALPHASE
Supporting 49 persons with severe and profound disabilities during the COVID-19 lockdown in Nepal.
TARA
INDIATARA Outreach Center
Providing essential food to 250+ people from TARA Outreach Center migrant community for three months.
EntreMundos
GUATEMALAEntreMundos
Assisting with emergency grants to eight EntreMundos partner NGOs in Guatemala during the crisis.
AVANI
INDIAAVANI
Providing food relief to 700+ children of migrant families and 3,200+ families from waste picker slums.
ASSADE
GUATEMALAASSADE
Obtaining emergency medical supplies and equipment necessary for rural healthcare clinic.
Maji Moto
KENYAMaji Moto
Providing food for staff and students – those most at risk of FGM and currently in Maji Moto’s care.
HUSK
CAMBODIAHUSK
Providing food relief to 7 women and their families from the Softie’s Program for three months.
CEF
VIETNAMChildren's Education Foundation
Providing emergency financial assistance to students’ families who have lost both incomes.
Free To Shine
CAMBODIAFree To Shine
Providing food relief and support to 15 most vulnerable families for three months.
Centro Maya
GUATEMALACentro Maya
Providing essential food, medicine and support to rural families of disabled Mayan students.
ECF
INDIAEqual Community Foundation
Repurposing project grants for staff salaries for April/May/June due to countrywide lockdown.
This global crisis is about much more than healthcare.
In India, communities were put on lockdown with just four hours notice, leaving them no time to prepare. The 80% of India’s 471-million-strong labor force working in the informal sector immediately lost their livelihoods. With no savings, their first concern is not the virus, it is finding a way to feed their children.
“‘What should I do?’ Ruhul Amin, a 28-year-old construction worker from West Bengal State, said when asked about contracting the virus. ‘I know I’m coming in contact with others, I know I am at risk. But this is about survival.’” (LA Times Article)
GoPhil partners like AVANI are working around the clock to support the most vulnerable members of society in India: migrants, homeless women, children living on the streets, and survivors of abuse. AVANI shelters are currently overrun with people in need of food and a safe place to sleep.
In Guatemala, public transportation is shut down and rural communities are more isolated and marginalized than ever. Food and essential supplies are not accessible. GoPhil partners are stepping up to care for those left behind by the government. ASSADE staff are putting their own lives on the line, treating an ever-growing queue of people experiencing respiratory problems, with no way of testing for the virus.
- Support approved partners and raise fast, flexible mostly unrestricted funds that can be allocated to communities requiring essential needs such as food, shelter, water and health services.
- Grants will be made on a case by case basis and based on a partner’s ability to assess and deliver critical essential needs.
- Funding will be granted as quickly as possible.
- With trusted relationships already in place, no grant application will be needed.
- An MoU, per legal requirements, will be drawn up and signed for each grant.
- Where requested, current existing grants to partners may be reallocated to other urgent needs. GoPhil will communicate these needed shifts to donors to the best of our abilities.
- Partners who have grant installments due later this fiscal year can request to receive funds earlier, should we have funds available.
- We will continue to stay in close contact with partners as needs and priorities evolve and continue to make adjustments as needed.
- We will review short term criteria as well as develop mid and longer term criteria for support.
GoPhil partners need your help now.
We know that these are challenging times for everyone, but we need to band together in the spirit of humanity to protect the most at-risk, vulnerable communities. We must recognize our own privilege and stand up for those who do not know where their next meal will come from, who don’t have running water to wash their hands, who have completely lost their daily wages and have no safety net.
If you are able, please consider making a life-saving contribution to GoPhil’s Rapid Response Fund, or better yet, a monthly, recurring donation – as the situation is likely to escalate and the implications will be long felt.
