06.08.2020

Covid-19: Hunger returns

In his report on the use of the funds received from UEM, the head of the Evangelical Anglican Church in Rwanda, Bishop Dr Jered Kalimba, describes the situation in his country caused by Covid-19 as follows:

"We would like to thank the UEM for its support of our church, the Evangelical Anglican Church of Rwanda (EAR), and our project "Emergency food aid for needy families after the lockdown extension due to COVID-19".

After the first case of Corona was identified in Rwanda on 13 March 2020, schools, church buildings and offices in Rwanda had to be closed as of 14 March. As the number of infected people continued to rise, public transport, boarding schools and shops were closed and all other activities were prohibited. People were advised to stay in their homes except to go to the grocery stores, bank, pharmacy or hospital.

Since then, everyone has stayed at home to prevent the spread of the virus. However, as many of our people live in extreme poverty and depend on casual work, we were immediately confronted with a new and important challenge: hunger. Most people do not practice agriculture and Rwanda is a country with a high population density. As a result, parents who depend on their daily wage have now lost their income and are currently unable to provide a single meal a day for their children, who, because of Corona, are home before the end of the school year.

Most families are struggling with food shortages. This is especially true for casual workers, day labourers and families in particular need. As a result, there was an urgent need to support precisely these families with staple foods for at least ten days and, at the same time, to raise their awareness of the protective measures against the spread of Covid-19.

To be able to do all this, the four dioceses of the Anglican Church of Rwanda have asked UEM for support.

Lists of names of people in need were already compiled during the Corona outbreak and completed by the pastors in collaboration with the local administration at village level. The lists included not only church members but also members from other faith communities. Different categories of need were identified, including mainly destitute people, marginalised people and people who became unemployed due to the curfew.

We used part of the UEM funds to provide basic food and soap to 1,920 households in four dioceses. Among the needy people were, for example, casual workers and single mothers who live on their daily income or who have lost their poorly paid jobs and were unable to accumulate savings and who are now starving due to the curfew. With the money we used to buy the most important food, but also soaps and disinfectants to follow the hygiene measures.   

The remaining funds were used to buy 4,000 face masks for needy people. During the lockdown period, the government ordered people to put on a face mask when leaving the house. Here we found that the poorest people, who could not even afford to eat, had little chance to get such a mask. Therefore, we equipped the most needy people with masks so that they could at least leave their homes to get medicine and basic services.

We also ordered 100 hand washing facilities to enable church members to wash their hands before entering and leaving the church. This was an essential prerequisite within the framework of the state requirements for reopening the churches.

With the distributed food and other important materials we were able to help people to recognize God's love in times of crisis. These people appreciated the support, many of them have begun to give their lives a new meaning. Young adults were encouraged to become active in the name of the Lord and promised to participate in church activities in the future, e.g. joining choirs or attending Sunday worship services".

Bishop Dr Jered Kalimba (Evangelical Anglican Church of Rwanda)