Canada helps protect vulnerable sectors in Central America against pandemic

Canada has allocated more than half a million dollars in aid to combat Covid-19 in vulnerable sectors of Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica, in the face of the health crisis generated by the pandemic.

“In 2020, we have contributed more than $500,000 through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives to combat the pandemic and its effects in Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica,”  the Canadian Ambassador for these three countries, James Hill, announced.

The Canada Fund for Local Initiatives is administered by the Embassy of Canada for Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

The information was released by the NGO Habitat for Humanity, which last May launched a campaign to raise funds for 1,500 vulnerable Nicaraguan families, the call of which was answered by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives.

Thursday, some 45 families living in poverty in the department of Jinotega (northern Nicaragua) received food packages and hygiene kits from Habitat for Humanity and the Canadian fund.

“What we are receiving in this difficult situation is a benefit for us poor people who do not have a way to buy things,” 68-year-old Martha Mejía, who uses a wheelchair, told AFP.

In Nicaragua, aid from Canadian cooperation is directed to 1,500 poor families, the elderly, the disabled, the sick with HIV/AIDS, single mothers who are heads of families and poor communities in the dry corridor.

“Faced with the historic challenge of Covid-19, cooperation is more important than ever, and Canada is responding to this call,” said the Canadian ambassador.

This fund has financed projects in vulnerable communities and populations and promoted human rights in 120 countries over the last 30 years.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the seven Central American countries register 349,226 cases of the coronavirus and 8,930 deaths.