Project Description

Emergency Fund

Global Partners’ Emergency Fund allows us to respond quickly to immediate needs, disasters, and crises in the regions where we work. True to our ethos, we partner directly with communities and local leaders to ensure that our response is relevant and sustainable.

We recognize that the most vulnerable are often disproportionately affected by humanitarian crises. This fund enables us to respond to schools that need immediate assistance due to their dire needs and to crises like COVID-19 and the swarms of locusts that are currently invading East Africa.

Response to COVID-19

The spread of COVID-19 in Africa is increasing, and there is global concern surrounding Africa’s relatively weak health systems’ abilities to respond to the pandemic. Kenya, a country of 50 million people, has just 550 intensive care beds. With a lack of clean water in many communities and a society largely ill-equipped to practice social distancing, quick action is needed to flatten the curve.

To limit and slow the progress of the novel coronavirus in western Kenya, we have partnered with the Society Empowerment Project, a Kenyan nonprofit organization, and local health clinics to bring simple handwashing stations to public areas and inform communities about COVID-19’s risks and what preventative measures should be taken. Previous epidemics across Africa have revealed that community-led initiatives are far more effective than government mandates, and we are proud to have partnered with knowledgeable and motivated local organizations. Our initial goal is to provide handwashing stations, and accompanying COVID-19 awareness training, at 200 sites in western Kenya.

Global Partners is monitoring the spread of COVID-19 in East Africa very closely, and we will continue to work with our local staff and partners to find ways to effectively respond to the pandemic.

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Emergency Fund Priority Areas

Illness, natural disasters, and other humanitarian crises disproportionately affect those living in poverty. When emergencies strike, Global Partners works directly with local leaders and communities to provide assistance and save lives. Local people know best how to serve their communities, and our Emergency Funds enables us to empower and support them in times of crisis.
785 million people worldwide lack access to clean water. Over 800 children die each day from preventable diseases caused from a lack of clean water and safe, adequate sanitation. Global Partners responds to communities with water needs through WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) projects that provide clean water infrastructure, assistance in water management and sustainability, sanitation facility improvement, and hygiene education.

The Emergency Fund enables Global Partners to respond quickly to immediate, urgent WASH needs in communities and schools.

Global Partners occasionally comes across schools that need immediate assistance due to their dire needs. For example, Kotieno Primary School’s roof was blown off during a storm, and the special needs students were sleeping on the floor since the school had no beds for them. With the help of our generous donors, Global Partners funded a new roof, installed special latrines for students with disabilities, and purchased beds and mattresses for the students at this Kenyan School.

Unfortunately, these types of situations are all too common. Our staff and partners are approached by schools whose only useable latrines are in danger of collapse, whose walls are literally falling down, and even those who have been officially condemned. Our Emergency Fund allows us to immediately respond to schools with extremely dangerous conditions to ensure that the schools remain open.