Dear Friends
COVID-19 is impacting us all in so many ways, and we want you to know how CPA is responding to the current crisis, both in Africa and here in the UK.
In Uganda we are doing our best to support our Partners and the vulnerable children on our projects. So far there is only one official case of coronavirus in Uganda, however, the spread of this disease presents a critical scenario for the Ugandan people as medical facilities are limited. One of the challenges in Africa is that families live and work very close to each other. As one community member said, “People are poor, they only get by living together, working together, so life can go on. Isolate? Then things are going to get bad.”
The schools in Uganda closed on Friday 20th March, with all children being sent home. This means that St Paul’s School has closed until the crisis has passed, and the Komamboga children have all returned to their families.
CPA is extremely concerned about the situation and we wanted to let you know that we are taking the following steps:
- We are in regular communication with our partners to keep up to date with the situation.
- We are encouraging our partners to put a plan in place to keep in touch and care for the project children in the best way possible.
- We are recommending that partners keep up to date with in-country government advice.
- We are also passing on the latest UK advice to help educate project workers on how to help the project children and their families stay as safe as possible.
We are aware that the vast majority of you contribute to school fees for our project children and that, for the time being, they will not be at school. However, there is much urgent work to be done in keeping the children, their care givers and the community to which they belong as safe as possible. Our project workers will be engaged in giving advice, training on hygiene and sanitation issues and responding to situations of immediate need. This will be an extremely busy time and we would very much appreciate your ongoing support so we can help the children, the project families and the wider community in which they live. This may involve supporting them with additional medical treatment or income support for food. It may also necessitate extra transport and personnel costs. Making sure that there is adequate food for our project children will in itself be a challenge.
In Ethiopia, we continue to be in contact with our contact there, Beletew Mengesha from Voice in the Wilderness Development Organisation, to support and encourage him.
The South African health minister, Zweli Mkhize said “Coronavirus doesn’t look at your passport, doesn’t look at your nationality, doesn’t look at your circumstances, doesn’t care whether you are rich or poor.”
How true this is turning out to be!
In the UK we are following Government advice and all our staff are working from home. At this time the best way to contact us is by email at office@cpafrica.org.uk, rather than by phone.
If you post something to us, please could you use the following address for the time being:
CPA, The Bothy, Waterwheel Lane, Branston, Lincoln, LN4 1LU
Over the next few weeks we will keep you updated and, in the meantime, we hope that you and your families stay safe and well.
With best wishes
Chris, Rosey, Paul, Richard and Raymond
CPA Directors
Monday 23rd March