How would it go if risk groups and the sick sleep in the same room?
Or if each mask costs a daily salary?
With examples from three continents, we want to describe how the corona pandemic affects our children and those they love.
Imagine you are a dad
in the Kenyan slum off Mombasa. You never got to go to school, and therefore get no job, but early every morning you walk into the city and offer your help to anyone who needs extra workforce. This is how most in your area provide for themselves. You groan and sweat day after day, scraping together just enough money for the kids to get food. Suddenly, a pandemic erupts. No one is allowed to leave the home without a mask. They cost $2 each and can only be used once. You rarely earn more than $2 a whole day.
How should your children get food now?
Imagine that you are a grandmother
in a Romanian village. You take care of six grandchildren while your daughter and her husband are begging abroad. You and your grandchildren live on the small change your daughter sends home – but suddenly the money stops coming. Your daughter and son-in-law have been quarantined can’t move or work. At the same time, all schools are closed and a curfew is imposed. You belong to the high-risk group and should isolate yourself. Instead, you are now crowded with six grandchildren in the single room of the home.
What do you feel when the food has run out and the kids start coughing?
Imagine you are a little girl in Haiti.
People say the pandemic does not affect children, but you know they are wrong. You, that child, feels it in your stomach. For you, the school lunch was the only real meal of the day. Now, when the school is closed, you go hungry. 70 percent of Haiti’s people live just like you; young and old together, on average, seven people in the same room, without electricity and without water to wash their hands with. If your parents stay home for a single day, they can’t afford food that night. When they think you’ve fallen asleep, they whisper something sinister to each other:
“A shutdown here in Haiti will kill more than any virus can do.”
You do not understand. What is about to happen? Will I die?
Imagine you are you.
You have just read about a grandmother, a father, and a daughter. You live in their situation because you know exactly what it feels like when a pandemic turns upside down in life. You’ve been feeling powerless for weeks, and it’s a horrible feeling. You think of those affected in countries like Romania, Kenya, and Haiti. You can’t do much about your situation – but you can do something about them.
Help them with food!
Who you will help, those families who overnight lost all income now food shortages remain the most crying need.
$20 is enough for a food package with important basic products such as flour, rice, and preserves.
This package sustains a five-child family for two weeks.
$35 is enough for a larger package of both food and hygiene items.
This package sustains a five-child family for almost a month.
Let’s slow down the effects of the crisis before it is too late!
YES I WILL HELP – Click to give or send a Check to Star of Hope PO Box 427. Ellinwood Kansas, 67526
