Covid-19 Urgent Appeal Special Report
Dear Friend,
We find ourselves living in extraordinary times and I hope that this message finds you and your family well.
There are many people who have passed away during this time and if your family has been touched by the virus, please accept my deepest sympathies.
It has been a truly desperate time for so many families here in Ireland.
In the countries where we are working, Covid-19 has also had a huge impact. Huge social and economic costs. But they do not have a wage subsidy scheme, a Covid- 19 payment, a decent healthcare service to help them through this.
They have little to nothing.
This is not new to the families we are working with. They have come from a place of “little to nothing” and have spent years trying to eke out a living from very primitive conditions.
Families with amazing resilience and hope.
But this is probably the greatest living crisis facing our farming families because the world that once helped them is now facing their own difficulties.
But they still need our help. Your help.
For the past number of weeks, the Bóthar team has been discussing and planning how best we can support our partners to respond to needs arisen from COVID19.
It has been very challenging.
We are facing problems that we never faced before.
We are working to get help where it is needed, so that families who are already so vulnerable, can benefit.
Families who would normally go to their local market to sell their goods, cannot. With nowhere to sell their goods, there is no income. With no income, no government subsidy, no welfare payments, no handouts of any kind, no savings, families are facing a grim reality.
And we still haven’t even tackled the spread of disease. Hand sanitizer, running water, plastic gloves are luxury items in the rural communities where we work. They are rare.
Entire families crammed into makeshift dwellings that have the most basic services.
Social distancing cannot exist here.
Can you imagine?
I struggle sometimes because I feel helpless as to what these families are going through.
But, the good news is
that with your help, we can help.
We are currently working with our project partners on delivering emergency supplies of food, because that is what is needed most urgently. In addition to food, seeds are also being delivered, so that there will be food on the table in the weeks and months to come.
Our learned President Michael D Higgins echoed my thoughts in a recent opinion piece in The Irish Times, 23rd April, 2020
“While Covid-19 is a global threat, it is the most vulnerable who are most at risk.”
I hope you can support our urgent Covid-19 appeal.
Click here do donate online or call 1850 82 99 99.
Yours faithfully,
Dave Moloney,
CEO, Bóthar
For more updates, read the latest copy of the BóVine newsletter here