General Information
The COVID-19 counts in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nepal remain low due to the preventive lock-downs that are being radically enforced. However, the economic impact is devastating for families who already live on the margins.
A humanitarian crisis is brewing under the surface everywhere we work.
ENLACE staff in all three countries is working with local church and community leaders to identify and respond to the families at greatest risk during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
Our Strategic Network
We currently work with over 125 churches, 250 community associations and mayors’ offices serving over 500,000 of the most vulnerable families in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nepal.
ENLACE’s Relief & Recovery Plan
Church and community leaders have already begun to identify the most vulnerable families and are creating three to six-month plans to assist them in strategic, effective and safe ways. They are coordinating with local officials so that food supplies and financial subsidies get to those families. They are also providing basic food supplies to families that are not receiving assistance at this time because they worked in the informal sector or are not registered officially with their local authorities. Many of the most vulnerable and under-resourced families are falling through the cracks.
Most vulnerable populations include:
- The elderly
- Chronically ill with diabetes and hypertension
- Single mothers with small children
- Chronically underemployed
- Recently unemployed (formal and informal sector)
- Provide information and best practices to prevent and/or care for those with the COVID-19 virus
- Listen and provide moral and spiritual support
- Provide information and coordinate assistance given by government agencies and NGOs
- Provide basic food supplies to vulnerable families
- Ensure clean water and hygiene products
- Ongoing emotional and spiritual support and care
- Mobilize medical attention for those chronically ill
- Provide business development training and loans to help entrepreneurs jump-start businesses to increase family income
- Provide technical assistance and inputs to small-scale farmers to increase production and stabilize family income
- Provide technical assistance to cultivate fruits and vegetables to improve nutrition and food security
Relief and Recovery Program Timeline:
| Identify vulnerable families | April 7 – May 15, 2020 |
| Organize and coordinate efforts with government/NGOs | April 21 – May 30, 2020 |
| Provide immediate care and assistance | May 15 – Aug.15, 2020 |
| Prepare for recovery and rebuilding strategies | May 7 – June 15, 2020 |
| Mobilize local and regional resources | May 15 – July 15, 2020 |
| Implement recovery and rebuilding strategies | June 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021 |
