October 12, 2020

Congress: support global COVID relief aid

topic:	Poverty
tags:	#COVID-19, #global action, #climate crisis, #US Congress, #poverty, #starvation, #economic crisis
located:	USA
by:	Yair Oded

For the first time in 22 years, global poverty is once again on the rise due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While even developed countries are struggling to contain the virus and provide adequate relief to its citizens, nations in the developing world are experiencing the brunt of the pandemic due to overstrained and meager healthcare resources, crumbling economies, and limited testing capabilities. 

It is estimated that by the end of 2020, coronavirus could push as many as 265 million people into starvation and an additional 500 million into poverty due to the economic fallout of the pandemic.  

The Borgen Project, a non-profit organisation fighting global poverty, has launched a campaign aimed at pressuring U.S. lawmakers to support a foreign aid bill that would allocate billions of dollars to staunching the surge of global poverty and fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

The emergency supplemental to the International Affairs Budget to fight COVID-19, advocated for by the Borgen Project, would secure $20 billion to stop the spread of the disease and respond to current and future outbreaks. The supplemental would make up for the meager 1 per cent of needed help allocated in the previous emergency package. 

Borgen Project states that the bill's passage could help save millions of lives, end the cycle of poverty, and curb other crises exacerbated by the pandemic, such as violence against women, mass migration, and the climate crisis. 

Borgen Project’s campaign provides a template for a letter urging congress members and senators to support the additional emergency supplemental resources for the International Affairs Budget to fight COVID-19. The template could be easily filled out and sent to your local representative within no more than 30 seconds. 

"No matter how successful we are in fighting the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic at home,” Admiral Stavridis and General Zinni (Ret.) are quoted saying in the letter template,  “we will never stop it unless we are also fighting it around the world." 

Please take a moment to fill out the template and email it to your local representatives. Leaders have often been noted to support a bill when only 8-10 constituents per district email them.

Every letter could help make a difference in pressuring the U.S. government to escalate its efforts in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic abroad and eliminating the scourge of global poverty. 

Image: Shakil Ahamed