Dear Friend –

As the coronavirus pandemic accelerates into the poorest countries, billions of people do not have access to clean water, and millions more do not have adequate healthcare and live in crowded slums or refugee camps where social isolation is impossible.

While our families and communities struggle to endure the impacts of COVID-19, there is still an opportunity to stop this virus from devastating the most vulnerable among us.

Oxfam already works in high-risk communities to promote accurate information about the disease, encourage handwashing, and provide hygiene items families need, such as soap and clean containers to store water. With limitations on travel, we're also taking steps to protect Oxfam's dedicated local staff and partners and the communities we serve so that we can continue the response as the pandemic progresses.

Please, donate today. Anything you can afford right now will make a difference. Funds go directly to Oxfam's efforts to support communities around the world responding to COVID-19 >>

With the help of the Oxfam community, we're coordinating our response to COVID-19 with partner organizations, government ministries of health, and key UN agencies in more than 50 countries.

Thanks to our expertise in public health outbreaks, we're mobilizing worldwide – from refugee camps in Jordan and Bangladesh to the most vulnerable communities in Italy – to make sure people have safe, clean water and toilets, and ensuring communities affected have accurate information and advice.

We also understand that this is more than a public health crisis. For example, as families are forced to remain in their homes and support centers and networks are closed, we're concerned about increased risk of gender-based violence. We're taking action here, too: our partner in Jordan, the Jordanian Women's Union, is continuing to find ways to provide assistance to survivors of domestic violence, such as working to secure permits to allow social workers to visit shelters for survivors of domestic violence, despite a rigid lockdown that keeps people in their homes.

Our response extends beyond public health, because this pandemic affects more than just people's physical health. No one individual, community, or country can deal with this crisis alone – coronavirus anywhere is a threat to people everywhere. 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 >>

On behalf of the Oxfam community, please know how deeply we appreciate your dedication to fighting poverty, hunger, and injustice with us. I hope you and your loved ones are able to stay healthy and safe in these challenging times.

Sincerely,

Abby Maxman
President
Oxfam America