Exploited, discriminated communities taking the lead on Covid-19 prevention and emergency support work 

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Rights Action
April 4, 2020
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COVID-19 Response Fund, Guatemala and Honduras
Exploited, discriminated communities taking the lead on Covid-19 prevention and emergency support work
[link removed]

To donate:
* Via Rights Action (U.S. & Canada): see below
* Go Fund Me campaign (U.S.): [link removed]

Since March 15, 2020, Rights Action has been sending small grants (your donations) to community groups we have supported for years, courageous Indigenous and non-Indigenous people involved in land, human rights and environmental defense struggles related to mining and hydro-electric dams, tourism, and the ‘for export’ production of sugar cane and African palm.

Here, a recent proposal from Mayan Q’eqchi’ land-environment-human rights defenders in the La Union community of 200 families, in eastern Guatemala, people who have suffered the violence and corruption of mining companies (INCO, Skye Resources, Hudbay Minerals, Solway Investment Group) going back decades, people who have lived on these lands for hundreds of years, people long discriminated, repressed and marginalized by the Guatemalan political, economic, military elites.

(Translation)
El Estor, Izabal, Neighborhood La Union
03.04.2020

For: Rights Action

We greet you in the name of our God almighty, wishing you success in your daily labors. Hoping that God has sent many blessings for the work you do for HUMAN RIGHTS.

The note to you is due to the social problems we are facing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic attacking humanity at a global level. In the face of this emergency in our country, and more so in our community, Barrio (neighborhood) La Union, we see that it is urgent to help the people with the most need, with the least economic resources. As COCODES – the highest authorities in Barrio La Union - together with Angelica Choc, defender of Indigenous communities, we are obliged to watch out for our brothers and sisters suffering because of COVID-19. Thus, we are knocking on doors in search of support to enable us to help those in most need, those most vulnerable.

Here, our request to Rights Action, in the name of God, that you may help us economically. What we are most in need of are basic food and hygiene supplies.

BASIC NECESSITIES:
- 25 quintales of corn: Q4,500.00
- 10 quintales of beans: Q5,000.00
HYGIENE SUPPLIES:
- 25 Gel Alcohol (Hand sanitizer): Q300.00
- 25 Antibacterial Soap: Q500.00
- 25 Bottles of Bleach: Q250.00
- 50 protective masks: Q500.00
- 25 Bottles of Disinfectant: Q375.00
TOTAL - basic necessities and hygiene supplies: Q11,425.00

Our work is to bring emergency supplies to the people most in need. We assure you that this support is for the families with little resources, the elderly, and widows.

Thank you for your attention. We pray to God for your help for Barrio La Union.

We send you this as COCODES, people who experienced and know the hard history we have lived through, people who continue to resist and to defend our lands.

Sincerely,
COCODES of Barrio La Union, and Angelica Choc

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Initial grants have been sent to:
* These Mayan Q’eqchi’ community defenders.
* Indigenous Garifuna community defenders on Honduras’ north coast, long suffering violence and corrupt dispossession of lands due to global tourism operators/ African palm producers / narco-traffickers.
* Indigenous, Lenca-descendant communities in western Honduras, long suffering violence and corrupt dispossession of lands due to hydro-electric dam, mining and logging interests.
* Indigenous and non-Indigenous individuals forced to flee Honduras and Guatemala, now in precarious refugee conditions in the U.S. or along the U.S.-Mexican border.
* Mayan Achi community defenders in central Guatemala (Baja Verapaz), survivors of the U.S.-backed genocides and repression of the 1980s and 90s, survivors of violence and evictions caused by the Chixoy dam, an illegal investment project (1975-1985) of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank.

Funds are being used by community defenders to:
* Educate about seriousness of COVID pandemic, particularly as government and media information sources are of little to no use for poor majority.
* Educate about primary importance of social isolation and cleaning hands and living spaces with soap, as much as possible.
* Monitor, and limit (as possible) the coming and going of people into communities.
* With maximum sanitary precaution, carry out home visits to monitor community members’ health.
* Where possible, establish community locations to isolate and support community members suspected of contracting COVID.
* Prioritize education and support for the elderly.
* Educate about strengthening immune systems through the use of herbal teas grown and used locally for generations.

Urgent needs:
* Personal health safety equipment for community members leading community support measures.
* Provision of basic foods for community members running short of survival foods.
* Provision of potable water (boiled if necessary) and soap.

Why this funding appeal
In an unjust, unequal global human order, inside nations and between rich and exploited nations, many are more vulnerable than others. While the COVID-19 virus is infecting people from ‘all walks of life’, it is infecting, harming and killing more people who live day to day, year to year, in vulnerable conditions of exploitation and poverty, discrimination and abandonment.

The best solution to COVID-19, as with so many injustices, violence and inequalities plaguing the lives of so many humans, is people, communities and governments working together and collaborating to create societies and a global community based on mutual well-being and fundamental equality inside and between nations.

This is always the case. This is what Rights Action, and our partner groups in Guatemala and Honduras, have long been working for.

Grahame Russell, director Rights Action
[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

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T[INS: ax-Deductible Donations :INS] (Canada & U.S.)
M[INS: ake check to "Rights Action" and mail to: :INS]
* U.S.: Box 50887, Washington DC, 20091-0887
* Canada: (Box 552) 351 Queen St. E, Toronto ON, M5A-1T8

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