The women’s group Goddesses of Asé is producing and distributing facemasks to thepopulation most in need in the peripheral neighborhood of Tomás Coelho, in the city of Rio de Janeiro to fight the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Casa Nem, which serves transgender and transvestite people in Copacabana, has been providing food, hygiene kits, and drinking water to LGBTI+ people served by the project who, because of the pandemic, are in an even more vulnerable situation. The Network of Communities and Movements Against Violence is helping mothers of victims of violence in the state to enroll in the CadÚnico to obtain Emergency Cash Assistance. Families are served in Rocinha, Bangu, Borel, Chapadão, Vidigal, and VigárioGeral, among other slums.
These three initiatives were made possible with resources from the Emergency Support Fund: Covid-19, a support line created by Brazil Human Rights Fund to provide resources to organized civil society, with the objective of supporting the actions to combat the consequences of the pandemic. R$ 2,400,637.00 was donated to 271 proposals in all Brazilian states.
Between the end of February and the beginning of March, when the new coronavirus arrived and spread throughout the country, several grassroots groups and activists began to publicly point out the serious consequences the disease would bring when it reached the territories and populations where human rights are systematically violated. In dialogue with various leaders, Brazil Fund understood that the emergency support in the context of the pandemic had become a priority for groups, collectives and grassroots organizations;
The Emergency Support Fund: Covid-19 was then created aiming at responding quickly to this need.
Over 2,300 proposals received
The Emergency Support Fund: Covid-19 received proposals between 8 and 15 April. There were more than 2,300 requests for help from all over the country.
The emergency line selected initiatives in four different work areas. The first was aimed at groups, collectives and grassroots organizations working with humanitarian aid: food donations, hygiene and cleaning material kits, face masks, psychological, social and legal support, and assistance with enrolling in the CadÚnico.
In the second axis, support to the continuity of the work developed by grassroots groupstowards guaranteeing human rights: resources for remote work, such as laptops and pre-paid credits for cell phones.
As an example, the Cultural Association of Indigenous Organizers, from Mato Grosso do Sul asked for support to guarantee cell phones and prepaid plans for a network of indigenous communicators who worked in the production of audiovisual informal content in the indigenous villages. The proposal was to share experiences and strategies to prevent Covid-19 from advancing without exposing people to the risk of contagion through personal contact. The material was also used to denounce rights violations, such as illegal entry into indigenous lands, for the press, the government, and society in general.
The third kind of support sought to enable infrastructure logistics for the distribution of humanitarian aid in areas of difficult access – hiring trucks and purchasing fuel for boats, for example.
In the rural area of the municipality of São Sebastião, in the Federal District, the Terra SebastianaCollective requested resources to be spent in logistics and for personal protection that would allow the continuity of the work around producing and distributing food from family farming of the 15 de Agosto settlement.
Finally, the fourth axis focused on the survival and continuity of the work of individuals with a recognized role in promoting human rights and who, due to the pandemic, had their income generation possibilities compromised.
In this modality, Jovanna Cardoso da Silva, one of the founders of the Brazilian Transvestite Movement, was contemplated. A resident of the city of Picos, Piauí undertaking a long history of fighting for access to public health and mobilizing sex workers against violence, today she lives with the money she makes as a speaker, due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. The grant provides temporary support for Jovanna and three other trans women whom she supports.
Lines 1, 2, and 3 accepted demands of up to R$ 10,000 per group, organization, or collective. Line 4 donated a maximum of R$ 5,000 per group.
Domestic workers, maroon peoples, and other groups
To deepen the understanding of the scope of each initiative, the registration form requested the specification of the priority audience to be served by each action.
Aimed at women in the Mata Escura district, on the outskirts of Salvador, the request from the Creuza Oliveira Women’s Collective was to distribute market baskets, hygiene kits, cooking gas and medicines. The collective is mainly made up of domestic workers who had to stop their activities – many of which lost their jobs.
The Remaining Maroon Community of Estivas Association, from Pernambuco, requested for potable water and water trucks to distribute quotas of 4,000 liters of drinking water to 150 families whohad their cisterns dried updue to the absence of rain. Thus, they were unable to carry out one of the main preventive measures for the new coronavirus, washing hands with soap and water.
The first list of orders fulfilled was released 15 days after the deadline for registrations, on April 30. Subsequently, two other lists were made possible with contributions from the following partnerships: Ford Foundation, Oak Foundation, Pão para o Mundo, Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) and Galo da Manhã Institute.
>> Click here to see the complete list of orders fulfilled
Other action fronts
In addition to the donation of financial resources, the efforts of the Brazil Fund to support the work of organized civil society to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic occurred on three other fronts.
At the beginning of March, the team was dedicated to dialogue with groups, collectives and organizations that had projects in progress within the scope of the foundation’s public notices and with the objective of making part of the resources already allocated to activities more flexible, so that they could be applied in actions to combat the pandemic.
Of the resources already donated, the Brazil Fund made a total of R$ 292,916.00 more flexible.
The Laudes Foundation contributed another R$ 108,274.00 to organizations that develop projects in the public notice for Combating Child Labor in the Fashion Industry.
In the scope of communication, we created a page dedicated to providing civil society with quality information to support the coping with the acute crisis imposed by the new coronavirus. The page Covid-19 – PromotingHuman Rights in the Context of the Pandemic gathers the following information, organized per thematic blocks: news and actions from the Brazil Fund; news and actions from our partnership network, such as community initiatives, good practices handbooks to reduce both contagion and the spread of false information, debates and informational events online; as well as public notices and calls for support against Covid-19 launched by other foundations and institutes, with the respective links for registration.
>> Click here to access the page Covid-19 – PromotingHuman Rights in the Context of the Pandemic
The Brazil of Rights platform, a collaborative communication project of the Brazil Fund that has partnerships with several groups that are or have been supported by the foundation, released a special publication with reports, opinion pieces and considerations on the pandemic. The special has 13 contents.
Engagement of artists on social networks
Actresses, actors, singers and influencers have engaged in the task of expanding resources for support against the new coronavirus. Nineteen celebrities voluntarily participated in the fundraising campaign with individuals made by the Brazil Fund, the fourth action front of the foundation’s activities in the context of the pandemic.
In a video created by actress and producer Marcella Rica, celebrities drew attention to the urgent needs that reached communities across the country due to the threat of contagion, the need for social isolation and the loss of income. Thus, they invited the audience to make donations to the Emergency Support Fund: Covid-19.
The video had the participation of Agatha Moreira, David Junior, Duda Beat, Fernanda Nobre, Gregório Duvivier, Icaro Silva, Iza, Linn da Quebrada, Marcella Rica, Nanda Costa, Rodrigo Dorado, Rodrigo França, Rodrigo Simas and Vitoria Strada.
>> Click here to watch the video
The artists published posts and stories on their personal profiles on Instagram, inviting the public to donate to the Brazil Fund and reaching a total of 35.07 million people. The actor Ícaro Silva was invited to talk about the campaign on the program Encontro com FátimaBernardes. LetíciaSabatella, David Junior, Rodrigo França and Linn da Quebrada participated in lives in the programming of media outlets such as Mídia Ninja and Portal Arteblitz.
Teresa Cristina, AlineFanju, Giselle Batista and Michelle Batista also participated in the campaign, which resulted in 633 individual donors.
Numbersof the Emergency Support Fund: Covid-19
Over 2,300 requests received
271 requests fulfilled
R$ 2.4 million donated
6 institutes and foundations allocated resources
633individual donations
