While I can’t see their mouths due to the face-masks, I can tell that the eyes of my teammates are smiling as we hand out the last of the relief packages which include two weeks of food and hygiene products as well as 2 weeks of study materials for their children. The unemployment rate among our families, over 66%, is one the worst we have ever seen in the years we have worked here. Unlike many more developed countries, there is no government support for the people in Nicaragua due to job loss due to COVID-19. During these unique times, we are glad that we have been able to partially support the families we have worked with for so many years with food, health programs, remote emotional support, and remote educational support.
We continue to remind our families of the importance of staying home when possible, using masks, distancing, and washing hands. Our daily home visits are still being replaced by daily phone calls to our families.
The food security portion of our Covid relief has not been easy to sustain due to the large number of funds needed for it. Since June, we have made and distributed almost 4000 food and hygiene relief packages. Doña Geovania, a grandmother and guardian of three grandchildren, told us that without this support right now, her children would be starving. We are grateful to each donor who has made this possible for the kids. Luckily, we were awarded two challenge grant opportunities for this purpose. SG Foundation awarded us a $15,000 challenge grant and Strachan Foundation a $10,000 challenge grant, for a total of $25,000. The $15,000 matching goal for SG Foundation was reached. We are deeply grateful to you all. We still have $4437.73 in order to match the $10,000 Strachan Foundation challenge grant goal. If you are able, please help us reach this by the end of December.
