SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde Relaunches Appeal to Support West Africa during COVID-19 Crisis

SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde Luxembourg-headquartered charity has launched an appeal for solidarity to allow its local partners in West Africa to continue their efforts to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on its beneficiaries and their communities.

This follows a first appeal in April and relies, among other things, on the pursuit of health prevention, economic recovery, educational support and child protection.

As the health crisis continues to escalate and the social and economic crises it engenders intensify, SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde has emphasised the importance of remaining mobilised to empower the world's most vulnerable populations. This is particularly the case in Africa where the number of infections remains worrying (one million cases at the start of August) and where the challenges are considerable, at all levels.

In West Africa, SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde manages, with the support of the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, twelve Community Support Programmes for the Protection of Children (PACOPE) for some 1,900 families and 8,000 children in four countries (Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal). Since April, it has supported its local partners in setting up a joint response to the COVID-19 crisis to help beneficiaries overcome it, with particular emphasis on health prevention and food support.

Between April and June, in terms of prevention against the spread of the virus, families were made aware through information and outreach activities through community structures in the neighbourhoods and all families received kits of hygiene. According to the charity, no partner or family beneficiary of PACOPE was infected during this period. On the food support side, all families in Niger and Mali, the most vulnerable in Guinea (in Kankan and Labé) and non-beneficiaries of state aid in Senegal received kits. 

Months of economic blockage have had dramatic consequences for PACOPE families who survive on informal and precarious jobs, most of them in the petty trade sector. Their vulnerability has increased and hence their difficulty in meeting the basic needs of their children whose lives have been turned upside down (school closings, inability to follow distance education, cessation of extra-curricular activities). The risk of dropping out of school in the long term is considered great and children have been more exposed to violence at home or in the street.

At the end of June, restrictions imposed by the governments of the four countries began to be lifted. However, faced with the health, economic, social and educational challenges, local partners launched a second intervention (July-December). This is aimed at continuing to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic on children, families and communities, with measures adapted to each site and targeted actions to relaunch activities, and to ensure respect for the rights of the child to to live, to be protected and to learn. This includes support for local initiatives and measures that focus on health prevention, the revival of economic activities, educational support and support for community structures working to protect children.

Anyone wishing to help SOS Villages d'Enfants Monde to strengthen its support for vulnerable communities in West Africa is invited to make a donation via bank transfer to the account CCPL IBAN LU65 1111 0050 0053 0000 (reference: "PACOPE - COVID-19 pandemic") or online at www.sosve.lu.