COVID-19 : Now as ever, resilience is our priority
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the greatest challenges for those who were already living under tough conditions, including refugees, internally displaced persons and vulnerable community members across Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
In response, Qudra 2, together with its partners, has stepped up health, hygiene, psycho-social support, as well as protection and awareness-raising activities for refugees, IDPs, returnees and host communities. Many activities are taking place online and new priorities have been set. Now as ever, our goal is to support the resilience of individuals and communities.
To directly help those affected by the virus or the psychological effects of the crisis, Qudra 2 partners are stepping up health, hygiene, and psychosocial support, as well as protection activities and awareness-raising for refugees, IDPs, returnees and host communities in all four partner countries. The aim is not just to help beneficiaries to mitigate the negative psychological impact of COVID-19 itself and the lockdown, but to strengthen their personal resilience beyond the crisis (Discover Rana’s story here). In many instances, our partners have gone online to make sure that despite movement restrictions, people get the help they need.
Qudra 2 also supports the efforts of public and private sector actors to help stop the spread of the virus. Whether it’s through 3D-printing face shields for use in hospitals, distributing hygiene kits including personal hygiene and household cleaning items for vulnerable refugee and host community members, procuring re-usable personal protective equipment (PPE) for municipal workers or supporting awareness-raising campaigns, we are helping our partners to #StopTheSpread.
For example, Qudra 2, in collaboration with the GIZ Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) cluster in Jordan, brought together different voices to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the Jordanian economy. Qudra 2 has initiated this digital dialogue to ensure providing a platform to express the skills needs of the Jordanian labour market and to exchange on challenges and mitigation strategies to combat the pandemic crisis in the country. The series of panel discussions shed light on the Jordanian labour market’s needs, where all sectors are challenged with the COVID-19 pandemic in the country as well as impacted by the chain supply globally.
“We needed someone to stand by us, to care and to
listen to our stories and what we are going through” says
Rana who attended remotely the psychosocial sessions
in positive parenting and early marriage awarenesssessions,
which aims at promoting protection measures
for the self-development and wellbeing of vulnerable
children and adults, from Syrian and Lebanese
populations.
