COVID RESPONSE
COVID 19 Community Response
The ADSBC has provided and delivered food to over two hundred communities in all people of African Descent through a partnership with the Canadian Red Cross and the Government of Canada. This program has been highly appreciated by so many community members across Lower Mainland, Greater Vancouver and BC.
The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected many Black families, Africana Descent youth and indigenous people in general across Canada and United States. People of African and Indigenous peoples have asked for government support services and to create emergency services to respond to the current crisis in the community. Covid-19 has affected people of African Descent tremendously on several levels, has had a heavy economic, health and social impact on lives of African Descent families and youth in Metro Vancouver. This has led to a number of multiple protests and online discussions, calling upon emergency response in the African Descent Community and Indigenous people which many interpreted as racism in the current crisis. There are over thirty-thousand people of African Descent in BC, many of them struggling even more with the pandemic.
Currently, many families and youth of African Descent in Vancouver Downtown and lower mainland are facing many challenges with this pandemic. This includes a lack of direct services like food delivery, home materials to use during lockdowns to supplement the Canada Emergency Response support, lack of Covid-19 community awareness campaign tools to sensitize the masses about the impact and dangers of Covid-19. Preventative measures established by the levels of government continue to be serious problems for our community. Although there are potential solutions such as virtual events and meetings, many African Descent Families have no money to buy equipment for Covid-19 to meet the technical requirements. This lack of ability presents a great risk and creates barriers for our community.We propose to seek funds and bridge this gap within the pandemic in three major project priorities highlighted below:
Delivering new services or programming as a result of new needs or losses arising as a result of COVID-19 to support the African Descent families, youth and Indigenous families affected by Covid-19. The fund will help to address the barriers and social inclusion and discrimination addressed by media, government and people of African Descent in Vancouver. The support will go directly towards those most vulnerable — youth and families of African Descent who are mostly left out in the distribution of service in Covid-19. The major community concerns today are the resources to be delivered to community response needs and distributing the resources: food, materials and raising community awareness. There are about fifty thousand people of Africa Descent in BC and about thirty-thousand people of African Descent in Metro Vancouver. All have one common problem of adapting to the current crisis due to lack of enough financial resources and our community is on the bottom end of poverty across Canada according to statistics Canada and BC provincial information.
Community awareness, information and education related to the pandemic to mitigate risk and impact, support recovery and resiliency and/or prevention. We shall work with our community professionals to develop materials and distribute them to community members and online social media platforms for support the current established measures of preventing Covid-19 crisis by developing tailored community engagement materials, which can be distributed to the most vulnerable community members and groups faced with pandemic barriers.
Recruiting, engaging and supporting volunteers for direct service delivery required to respond to the pandemic. The African Descent Society seeks fund under this section to recruit, engage and support volunteers who are needed to form a community outreach response team to deliver services to community members currently needing support and mitigating the risks of an increasing Covid-19 pandemic. This will help to meet the daily costs of recruiting volunteers, delivering groceries or home supplies, transports and logistics services to help protect everyone and ensure we go through together during the pandemic crisis.
Every year, African Descent Society BC engages the communities in many ways including community connection and volunteers, which ranges up to one hundred to two hundred fifty volunteers in the community events.
At the Front Lines
ADSBC focuses on promoting the arts, culture and heritage of those of African descent in Vancouver and British Columbia. We are heavily involved in community service activities and engagement of families; we are youth advocates for refugee asylum seekers, settlement connection programs, social justice programs and advocacy work, aiming to change the lives and economic wellbeing for people of African Descent in BC.
During the FortMcMurray fire, which was heavily supported by Red Cross, Yasin Kiraga Misago ADBSC Executive Director, was one on the volunteer team for Canada Red Cross at Lake City. He was part of the fundraising team to raise money for recovery and support of Fort McMurray fire aid. With this experience, he will be able to use skills from Red Cross emergency response team to support hundreds of People of African Descent Families at risk of Covid-19.
ADSBC has a long history of community response support with records of responding and leading many crisis events that happen often in African Descent communities. In 2018, African Descent Society BC partnered with Fresh Voice Vancouver and the Vancouver Foundation for a research-based project called Fresh Voice Employment: Mobility and Integration for supporting the Youth of African Descent. The research indicated that the majority of those struggling with everyday life and settlement in Canada are from Africa with very low proportional representation. This is again reflected today in Covid-19 racial representation of people of African Descent.
ADSBC Covid-19 community response volunteer orientation.
