Stage One - Handwashing Stations and Community Education
Simple messaging on hygiene and prevention has a far-reaching effect in the fight against the spread of Covid-19. Much Covid-19 misinformation is circulating, especially in developing countries. Initial Hope St Covid-19 Projects are focused on: 1) Funding handwashing stations, and 2) Community education with local radio, posters, and social media used to teach important messages such as hand hygiene and social distancing.

Stage Two - Communication Grants
Our international partners need to keep in touch with at risk beneficiaries in the absence of routine face-to-face social work. With schools closed in Uganda and movement restricted during the pandemic, partner staff are unable to visit Hope St’s sponsored children. Unplanned teen pregnancies rose sharply when schools closed in Sierra Leone during the Ebola epidemic 1 and the increased risk of teen pregnancy in Africa due to Covid-19 closures has already been reported. 2 We need to keep our beneficiaries safe, and to do so our partners need to be communicating with them regularly.

Urgent Funding Needed
Please consider donating to our regular projects along with our Covid-19 appeal. With the cancellation of our major fundraising events scheduled across 2020 we are projecting a significant funding shortfall. We need to buffer this shortfall to keep our partner personnel in their jobs, so they can continue providing for the children in their care. This is an urgent appeal for funds to buffer the basic running costs of our partners in Uganda, Myanmar, Kenya and Bulgaria while we adapt to new fundraising mechanisms which fit within the restrictions of the Covid-19 environment.