As COVID-19 affects all of our lives, Integral’s 22 Members are continuing to serve the most vulnerable in the world’s poorest countries …
COVID-19 response photos from Somalia – activities funded by OFDA, TEAR Australia, Help a Child (Dutch Relief Alliance)
Integral Members are determined to help communities face the new health and economic challenges resulting from the Coronavirus Pandemic. Some Members are preparing communities to limit the spread of the virus through public health messages and water and sanitation activities, as well as doing vital preventive work in refugee camps. Others are providing PPE, medical treatment and supplies. Members are maintaining and adapting their core work while considering how to respond to the new needs arising from the pandemic. With international travel restrictions in place, Members are supporting local staff and Partners to adapt to new ways of working.
Countries Integral Members work in often have fragile health systems and few resources to counter the virus. Social distancing and isolation in many cases are impossible to achieve. Access to adequate sanitation is already a challenge. Restrictions on movement and the closure of workplaces and markets will cause many to lose their basic livelihoods.
Integral provides a platform for Members to share and learn from one another and identify where they can support each other or work together during this extremely challenging time. Integral is enabling Members to share real time information about the impact of COVID-19 on their work around the world in programming and fundraising, and in how best to provide duty of care for staff.
Integral Members’ Fundraising and Communications teams are adjusting how they work with their supporters, running events and engaging with churches virtually instead of in person. Through Integral relationships, Members are sharing funds in order to support each other’s responses. Regular calls have been set up with our Members to share what they are doing, what’s changing and what’s working within a changing funding environment.
On the programmes side regular calls are taking place to share information and see where collaboration would most add value. There is also a smaller Early Recovery focus group looking at the longer term negative impact of COVID on communities and how these might be mitigated.
Maggie Konstanski, Deputy Director of Disaster Response and Protection at World Concern, and co-chair of the Early Recovery Group says. “All Integral Members are working hard reorienting their programming around the immediate needs raised by COVID-19. However, it is important that we also start thinking about early recovery. Integral provides the ideal forum to share learning and best practice as we look beyond the initial humanitarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also gives space for us to identify areas where we can collaborate for greater impact.”
Maggie continues, “Now that field access is restricted, it has been so helpful to hear about new tools and innovative approaches developed by other Integral Members. Collectively we will be in a better position to fill in our own information gaps and identify where needs are increasing over time for more targeted assessment and intervention.”
We believe that collaboration enables us to reach more people and to make the best use of our combined resources. Integral’s 22 Members are working in over 100 countries worldwide, in 34 sectors, with more than 580 local Partners – all are affected by the COVID-19 Global Pandemic.
Please see the below links for how our Members are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic:
CEDAR Fund
Food for the Hungry
Integra
International Health Partners
Medair
Medical Teams International
Mission Alliance Norwa
Mission East
SEL
TEAR Australia
Tear Netherlands
Tearfund Belgium
Tearfund Canada
Tearfund Ireland
Tearfund New Zealand
TearFund Switzerland
Tearfund UK
Transform Aid International
World Concern US
World Relief US
World Renew
ZOA
Please see here for an infographic of our Members’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
