In the months after the pandemic began, CoCoDA transitioned from our previous projects to supporting Nicaragua and El Salvador through the “Central American Relief Effort” (CARE) campaign.

While we continue to sustain other programs, our priority has become supporting the response of our partners to this terrible virus. Through donors like you, we have distributed over $5,000 of masks, PP equipment and other resources.

However, the need still exists, the danger is not over and we will continue to fight against the coronavirus. We have received a generous matching grant and every donation between now and Thanksgiving will be doubled.  Please consider making a donation today.

Here is how the first $5,000 supported these efforts  in Central America.

MCN

In Somoto, Nicaragua, the impact suffered by the communities due to Covid-19 has been especially severe with people with pre-existing conditions. Seventy-one at-risk families received hygiene packages.  Nine community study centers and health centers in this community received supplies.

Due to the increase in economic and social vulnerability, the Nicaraguan-Somoto Community Movement (MCN) requested the collaboration of Companion Community Development Alternatives, which thanks to the collaboration of our donors, we were able to provide.

REDES

Our allies in El Salvador Fundación para la Reconstrucción y el Desarrollo (REDES) delivered fifty basic hygiene packages and masks to fifty families from the Palo Grande community in Suchitoto – a community with no previous support.

Palo Grande is just one of the many communities in Central America where many families depend economically on their agricultural work, which the quarantine period impacted as workers were not able to get into their fields.

ADES

Many of our partners have been unable to respond to community needs because their workers did not have the equipment to protect themselves and others. CoCoDA provided our partners the materials for the care and protection of their employees.

Among those partners was the Santa Marta Social Economic Development Association (ADES), which was able to purchase sanitation items, bio sanitary cleaning materials such as sanitizers, liquid soap, toilet paper, sprinklers, carpets, dispensers, footbaths for disinfection of shoes, and boxes of surgical masks.  With these resources, ADES was able to continue their many other necessary programs in education, agriculture, public health, and water and sanitation.

CRC

The Committee for Reconstruction and Social Economic Development of Communities of Suchitoto (CRC) used their funds to purchase medicines and protective equipment for medical personnel and patients.

They bought protective masks and sanitizers to ensure the protection of patients who visited the clinic located in the La Mora community, which has

been forced to deal with many more patients with hospitals focusing on Covid-19 patients.

With the purchase of these materials and medicines, the aim is to cushion the lethality of the Covid-19 virus, as well as teach preventive measures against the disease.

Suchitoto Midwives Association

This care has been vital during pandemic when mothers were rightly afraid to travel to the local hospital for care.  Our support has allowed both the midwives and their patients to be better protected from the transmission of the virus.