The staff at Brethren Disaster Ministries have directed grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in two countries in central Africa: Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In response to the pandemic, governments all over the world are closing borders, restricting travel, and ordering families to stay at home. In less developed countries like the DRC, South Sudan, and Rwanda there are no support systems or aid programs outside of families helping each other, and the most vulnerable people like the Batwa in Rwanda and the Twa in the DRC live day-to-day.
Brethren Disaster Ministries has created a COVID-19 grant proposal form and plans to help address the food crisis and humanitarian crisis created by the pandemic.
An allocation of $20,000 will provide:
— $8,000 to the Rwanda Church of the Brethren to provide emergency food to 225 at-risk families selected from the four Church of the Brethren congregations and the community around them. Each family will receive rice, beans, cornmeal, and soap.
— $12,000 to the Church of the Brethren in the DRC to provide emergency food to 550 households from five Church of the Brethren congregations and the communities around them. Each family will receive beans, cornmeal, vegetable oil, and soap.
Grant funds will be used to provide emergency food to the most vulnerable families and households in the communities around the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwandan Church of the Brethren congregations. Response partners will also receive translated flyers about the pandemic and will be encouraged to hand them out with the food.