Friend –

I hope you and your loved ones are staying healthy and safe in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. As I'm sure you're witnessing, even in wealthy countries, families are struggling without sufficient support like paid sick leave and affordable healthcare.

Imagine what it must be like for others who, because they have been forced to flee their homes, are even more vulnerable. The Greek island of Lesbos – home to thousands of asylum seekers, trapped living in overcrowded and unsanitary living conditions – now has a confirmed case of COVID-19.

In an environment like a refugee camp where close quarters and a lack of clean water and soap make preventative measures like frequent handwashing nearly impossible, the impact of COVID-19 could be devastating.

Lesbos is just one of hundreds of places where people are already hard-pressed to access adequate and affordable health care, and COVID-19 poses a serious new threat. As a leading water and sanitation organization, Oxfam's teams are on the ground now around the world, providing advice and support tailored to local languages and customs. We're working with longstanding local partners to slow the spread of COVID-19 by increasing the delivery of soap, sanitation services, and clean water to people in higher-risk environments and educating communities on the importance of proper handwashing and other practices to stay healthy.

We need your help. Right now, we need to scale up our response to save lives, and need additional funds to do so.

Please, make an emergency donation today. Your contribution will help meet the most critical needs and help people recover >>

Right now, Oxfam is coordinating our response with partner organizations, government ministries of health, and key UN agencies in 65 countries. Our expertise in public health outbreaks is making sure people have safe, clean water and toilets and making sure communities affected have accurate information and advice.

In Syria, as Syrians enter the 10th year since the outbreak of conflict, they are now also facing the grim reality of COVID-19. In response, Oxfam is accelerating delivery of hygiene materials like soap and undertaking public health promotion programs with the help of community volunteers, posters, and social media.

In Timor-Leste, southeast Asia, we're making COVID-19 information available in the local language of Tetum through community groups and other partners. This information reinforces the messaging of washing hands, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing, and what to do if you think you may be sick.

And In the Rohingya refugees camps in Bangladesh and internally displaced camps in Myanmar, Oxfam with the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector and partners have already incorporated COVID-19 prevention into our existing work, with further training for staff and volunteers, soap distributions and community engagement on COVID 19 prevention planned.

These are just a few of the many projects we need to mobilize as quickly as possible in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the communities we are already working in. No one individual, community, or country can deal with this crisis alone. We must work together, in our communities and across borders, with dignity and compassion.

Donate today. Funds go directly to help poor communities around the world respond to COVID-19 >>

The faster we can scale up a response, the more people we can help. As we all work to protect the health of our loved ones, we're continuing to rely on the generosity of supporters like you. Thank you for helping to provide care for people across the globe.

Sincerely,

Abby Maxman
President
Oxfam America