COVID-19 Eswatini Project #46674

Emergency Response to COVID-19 in Moya Communities

by Moya Trust (also known as Moya Centre)

Project Report | Mar 5, 2021
Final Report for this Project

By Katelyn Panzarella | Resource Mobilization Officer

First and foremost, I must offer my most sincere apologies for not writing this report and updating our donors in time. The Board of Trustees at Moya updated HR policies which afforded me (and any other mother at Moya who had a baby since 2019) two more months of maternity leave. I took that time off, and unfortunately do to the very high volume of work in our community, my colleagues were unable to write the report for me, as it falls over my one-woman department. Hopefully the tardiness of this report will not reflect negatively on Moya Centre, and our faithful donors will understand that the work is never done at Moya, and so sometimes reports are put on hold to deal with issues taking place in person, in the communities, in an urgent way.

It is also important to note that now that we are in 2021, this will be the last report for this particular project. This does not mean that the issues that have come about due to Covid are solved, it means that they are, in fact, ongoing, and so we have come up with a more long-term plan that we cannot consider to be emergency response.

This fundraising campaign was very helpful around this time last year, but has failed to raise significant funds since then, which makes sense, as it was labeled an emergency campaigns and no one knew at that time the actual impact Covid would have, or that people would still be suffering a year later. However, we were able to find funds elsewhere, through two other foundations that allowed us to provide food support through the end of the year. The final food distribution initiative was done in December, to ensure that close to 800 families had food for the holiday season.

We will be closing this project and replacing it with a new, longer-term initiative to provide food security to those who are truly feeling a long-term impact of this pandemic. Having such long-standing and personal relationships with the families we serve, we are able to identify the children who need this support the most. In December of last year, we also surveyed a large sample of our beneficiaries to get a more accurate idea of where they and their families stand within the pandemic, as well as looking to identify other challenges they are facing. This data will assist us in providing food security over the next few years as well. Prior to the pandemic, we were moving away from providing food provision, and towards the more sustainable production. The new project will incorporate all three P’s of security- production, provision and protection, dependent on each child/family and their circumstances. Having more than one option, to best suit the needs of our beneficiaries is how we work as a CBO, and every program is holistic in nature.

Please be on the lookout for our new project coming soon on GlobalGiving. If you were one of those who donated at the beginning of this project, please consider giving again to continue to support food security in Lobamba Lomdzala, in a more long-term, sustainable way. Thank you for being a part of the Moya Centre family.

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Aug 26, 2020
Emergency Response to COVID-19 Report 1

By Katelyn Panzarella | Coms, Data, Events & Resource Mobilization Manager

Due to the funds acquired by Moya in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to act swiftly to ensure those in Lobamba Lomdzala who need food the most, were able to receive support.

Being a community-based organization with a variety of programs happening in the community, as well as having representatives on the ground, we were easily able to identify the children and families who would benefit most from a parcel. In reality, most children who take part in our programs fit the description of an orphaned or vulnerable child, and so our distribution impacted many homesteads, and most children from our programming. But this initiative was more than just establishing drop-off points where children and their parents would receive food- it was a full-on community engagement, and was done so in a way that complies with all rules and regulations put in place to flatten the curve of Covid-19 cases.

The distribution took about two weeks, and included two phases. Yet all engagements included receiving a food parcel, mask and sanitizer as well as valuable education on masks, proper hygiene, including tippy-tap making (and material distribution for those who promise to build and will be followed-up on, and why working on a garden while out of school was so important, including the distribution of seedlings as well.

Phase 1 was focused on the Healthy Proactive Living program, and took place within communities. Distribution points were set up in places where Moya Youth Clubs and Kids Clubs usually meet. These spaces are large enough to allow people to gather in small groups and go to each station. There was no concern about transport, as all beneficiaries for that day live within walking distance of that site. Youth Clubs and Kids Club members, along with Moya Caregivers, Youth Leaders and some community partners were beneficiaries of this initial phase.

Phase 2 took place at Moya Centre, and therefore required more logistics. Since the property is so large, we were able to set up two distribution points on either side of the premises and scheduled ten children/youth to arrive each hour at each point (20 kids served I total per hour). This phase also had all of the stations mentioned above, but came seconds as more scheduling and time management needed to be considered, and so planning was done by a few staff members back in the office while the first distribution took place.

It is clear that otehr funding sources have been used for this inititiave, and we have even done distributions in 3 months at this point. We were only able to raise about 5.5% of our goal through this platform, but it has made a difference. Because of the funds raised through GlobalGiving, 14 children and their families- up to 140 individuals- not only were fed for a month, but received the full engagement described above.

The impact of this pandemic is still felt strongly throughout our communities, and so we will continue to have this type of engagement within our communities until our beneficiaries recover financially and are back on their feet, and we assume that will be, at minimum, until the end of 2020 that this support will be needed. We wil keep this project going as long as needed, and only hope our support network will help up in such an uncertain and difficult time, so keep providing such a unique and necessary service to deserving people who desperately need it.

Attachments:

Moya_Annual_Stakeholders_Report_2019.pdf (PDF)

6 Attachments

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