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. 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. To date, the project has provided 200 handwashing stations, and accompanying COVID-19 awareness training, at 100 sites in western Kenya.
We are also working with the District Medical Officer in Singida, Tanzania to supply medical kits, which include handwashing stations, soap, hand sanitizer, COVID-19 educational materials, and medical supplies, to rural medical facilities. These clinics are underfunded and understaffed, yet they are well positioned for educating communities on preventative COVID-19 measures. They also need personal protective equipment to ensure that the clinics themselves do not become hotspots for the coronavirus.
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.
Emergency Fund Priority Areas
The Emergency Fund enables Global Partners to respond quickly to immediate, urgent WASH needs in communities and schools.
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.