Stories from our partners
Life since the C-19 crisis has changed dramatically for a large number of people. It has affected our thinking, our planning and our work. SHE Collaborates, in collaboration with funders and project partners, have been moving forward in our efforts to continue providing quality training in healthcare.
“Not sure how we will recover. It is a disaster.”
These are the words of a project partner in Nepal when speaking of the economic and social devastation that the Covid 19 crisis has affected on her community and work environment. As a doctor and teacher at her community hospital, she, like her colleagues, had been submitted to a 75% salary decrease, as an already vulnerable financial safety net was quickly depleted during their ongoing lockdown.
Still, she returns to the hospital on a daily basis to carry out her essential tasks. And she continues to invest this same dedication into a project in which we have worked together over the previous 8 months.
“We will facilitate the process in any way possible in order to succeed with the program,” she concludes at the end of our recent online discussion.
For all discussions and training sessions have now moved to the online world. Moreover, it has proceeded in a manner that causes one to optimistically plan ahead for a successful outcome of the objectives. For this, we send our love to our partners who tirelessly pour their hearts into their communities. In addition, we promise to continue dedicating our energies to seeking a positive result amidst these turbulent times.
Rikus Nieuwenhuis
"We will all come out of these victorious and better."
In the Philippines, where SHE Collaborates works on a SRHR project in rural communities with local partners in Manila and Tacloban City on the Island Leyte, a similar situation is going on. Since March, there is an "enhanced community quarantine" in place. The lockdown is a challenge for many people, especially those who are daily wage earners, those who live in slum areas, and the homeless. Our contact person in the Philippines let us know that her heart breaks every time she sees the news, showing the lack of social safety nets and care for the poor and the vulnerable population. In the hospitals, supplies and PPEs are dwindling and they fear for colleagues who are in the frontlines. They made improvised facemasks (using PVC sheets and insulation boards) and gave them to different hospitals and frontline workers, in the hope that it will somehow help protect them from the virus.
Despite of the situation, our partners are determined to make the project a success. Therefore, together with them and the consultants, we are looking for ways to continue the project, organize online training and facilitate the partners as much as possible. This requires flexibility and adaption from all parties.
We are sure that the outcomes of the project will be successful and meaningful for the rural and vulnerable communities of Eastern Visayas Region in the Philippines. As our contact partner says in her message to us: “These are very challenging times for all, but the people of Philippines, and especially Tacloban City keep being hopeful that, in the same way that they hurdled the super typhoon in 2013, we will all come out of these victorious and better.”
Yoka Cerfontaine