Help Frontline Women and Youth Peacebuilders Counter COVID-19

Women and youth peacebuilders provide vital assistance to counter COVID-19 in areas affected by violent conflicts. They need lifesaving resources today. During this growing pandemic, they face great risks to their health and safety. Your gift ensures that women and youth peacebuilders are able to purchase face masks, disinfectants, disseminate factual information to prevent mass panic, and are able to respond quickly to the crisis.

Help Frontline Women and Youth Peacebuilders Counter COVID-19

March 25, 2020 by Heela Yoon and Katrina Leclerc

Women and youth peacebuilders provide vital assistance to counter COVID-19 in areas affected by violent conflicts.  They need lifesaving resources today.  During this growing pandemic, they face great risks to their health and safety. Your gift ensures that women and youth peacebuilders are able to purchase face masks, disinfectants, disseminate factual information to prevent mass panic, and are able to respond quickly to the crisis. Please make a lifesaving gift today by donating here.

The current COVID-19 global pandemic as declared by the World Health Organization touches all of our lives, beyond borders. Thousands have been killed and many more are left vulnerable, especially in conflicted-affected areas. The pandemic has brought on many challenges: life-threatening illness, economic disparity, mental health challenges, and an increase in domestic violence.

As the virus is spreading across the world rapidly, we have seen a disproportionate impact on women and youth. Not only are women and youth more at risk of intimate partner violence due to the need for self-isolation in homes, they are also increasing in numbers as frontline providers. Many women and youth are expected to provide relief services, while juggling domestic responsibilities, such as childcare. This has amplified the impact of the virus on women and youth, especially in conflict-affected areas, including for the displaced and those living with various disabilities.

Despite the challenges, women and youth peacebuilders continue to respond to the crisis. In Kherson, Ukraine, women and youth are providing emotional support and ensuring updated information through online platforms, using their existing networks to target vulnerable women. In Armenia, women are coordinating food packages and delivery for the elderly and vulnerable families. They are providing necessary assistance to those in the capital city, and ensuring that conflict-affected areas, such as Nagoron Karabakh, are not forgotten.

In remote and marginalized communities across the Philippines and Indonesia, the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders’ Young Women for Peace and Leadership are delivering food and other medical relief packages to those left vulnerable.

The COVID-19 pandemic marks an unprecedented time in modern history that will require the best of humanity to overcome. This crisis threatens everyone’s way of life, but it is especially difficult for those families who are already vulnerable due to their low income or precarious employment. It is our turn to help frontline women and youth peacebuilders to counter COVID-19.

You can donate here: https://bit.ly/2Jczuk7

Cheques can also be mailed to the Global Network of Women Peacebuilders at: 777 United Nations Plaza, 8-B, New York NY 10017