_edited.png)
As we have been witnessing in the past few months, the whole world has been affected by COVID19. Its unprecedented nature and contagiousness have left even the world’s most advanced countries struggling to contain it.
According to the World Health Organization, LDCs (Least Developed Countries) account for a small but rising 0.56 percent of global cases and 0.23 percent of global deaths. This may seem like a low number, but it can be traced to the lack of testing capabilities. ¹
In addition to infrastructure, people’s awareness has proved to be vital in the prevention of spread. This left LDCs , that don’t have the infrastructure nor the capabilities to face the virus, at a disadvantage, Especially countries like Djibouti and Rwanda which lead the score in case numbers. Many countries suffer from poverty, the absence of a social security system, and the weakness of the health system. Some of these countries have refugee camps that do not meet the minimum sanitary requirement, some have suffered from recent catastrophic events such as Lebanon and some are, in fact, conflict zones at this present day such as Syria and Yemen. In these countries, not only are people unaware, they are unable to leave their daily jobs in fear of starvation, especially in the absence of a social security system to guarantee their livelihood. Women have had to leave their jobs to stay with their children during school closures. And elderly people are unable to access hospitals due to the limited number of equipment and beds. One example is Syria. Due to the sanctions that have reached health equipment, there are not enough tests to capture the real number of cases, no equipment for ICUs, and no PPE equipment to even protect the doctors and nurses who are working in the hospitals. Sanctions at this time on sanitary equipment is a basic human rights violation. Hospital and healthcare equipment should be exempt from the sanctions at least in this difficult time. We, in New Women Connectors, would like to raise the voice to humanitarian organizations to ask: is politics more important than humanity? Is punishing one person worth punishing a whole population? We call to our partners and the humanitarian organizations that work everywhere, but especially in the Middle East region, to raise awareness and shed a light on the devastating situation in Syria and Lebanon and many other countries in the face of Corona virus. There has been a significant amount of funds dedicated to COVID-19 [1] response, we call that some of it would be dedicated to poorer countries to send tests and ventilators. We are all in this together! And we need to face it together!
For further information and join us; please contact: info@newwomenconnectors.com
# iwomenconnector #ConnectNow #COVID19 #iwomenconnector
See full Article about LDC countries in COVID-19