In a year in which the coronavirus pandemic has marked the present, with its millions of infections and more than a million deaths and the huge socio-economic impact it is having, there has also been some good news, starting with the shows of solidarity that in a time of crisis like the present have been repeated around the world.
One of the consequences of the pandemic is that the vast majority of children were temporarily left without class. That is why, says the director of aid campaigns in action, Alberto Casado, “2020 has served to give much more importance to education, especially in emergency situations such as the one we live in.” “We need to foster the school as a resilient space, recognize the work of teachers and respond to global challenges such as reconciliation or the need to bridge the educational digital divide,” he claims.
“COVID-19 has highlighted the importance in terms of public health of the work of community health workers and severe acute malnutrition has become considered a priority disease to be treated at the community level, which from Action against hunger we have been working since 2014 “, highlights for her part the coordinator of the NGO project in this matter, Pilar Xerri.
Severe acute malnutrition kills more than 3 million children under the age of 5 each year, hence ACH’s commitment to training health workers so they can diagnose and treat this disease in their own community. In the Sahel alone, the NGO has managed to reach 450 communities between 2019 and 2020, providing care to more than 4,000 children thanks to them. “The work of these health workers has meant that fewer families have dropped out of treatment and has therefore saved the lives of children in the community,” Xerri celebrates.
Aside from the pandemic, there has been some good news on the health plan this year. The first is the declaration of the eradication of polio in Africa on August 25, and secondly that the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has ended the two Ebola outbreaks it was facing.
This is definitely one of the good news of the year for Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The outbreak affecting North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri came to an end on 25 June. As explained by Luis Alzines, MSF Ebola expert, one of the main challenges was to gain the trust of the communities, in an area where there had never been Ebola before, where there is a persistent conflict and a high number of displaced people.
Therefore, in addition to fighting Ebola, MSF chose to support primary care services in health centers and hospitals in the region, as well as mass vaccination campaigns against other diseases, such as measles that in less than a year had claimed twice as many deaths as Ebola itself. “The one in the region of Ecuador, decreed on June 1, lasted just five months. With the lesson learned, says Alzines , MSF opted for its Congolese workers and small medical structures, for better community acceptance.
SUDAN PROHIBITS GENITAL MUTILATION
From World Vision Spain, its director, Javier Ruiz, celebrates that Sudan will join in May the countries that have banned female genital mutilation. “It is an important starting point for ending a tradition based on false rites and beliefs,” he points out, betting on conducting information and awareness campaigns now.
“In addition to enforcing legislation and ensuring compliance, we need to empower girls and women; provide financial support and incentives to them and their families; change attitudes and beliefs through the mobilization of families and communities, including to religious leaders and provide response and support services. Ending ablation requires work that is mutually reinforcing in all of these areas, ”Ruiz stresses.
Save the Children highlights as a breakthrough for the comprehensive protection of girls and adolescents in the Dominican Republic the unanimous vote in the Chamber of Deputies to eliminate exemptions that allow child marriage in the country’s Civil Code.
“We ask that this legal step be accompanied by public policies for the elimination and prevention of this problem, and especially actions aimed at caring for and socially reintegrating girls and adolescents,” says Michela Ranieri, foreign policy expert at Save the Children.
In the field of human rights, Amnesty International welcomes, among other things, Somalia’s decision to establish a prosecutor’s office in charge of crimes against journalists, extending for two more years the investigative mission on Venezuela after denouncing that the government of Nicolás Maduro could have committed crimes against humanity, or that in Denmark the Government has agreed to reform the Penal Code to include that sex without consent is rape.
ARGENTINA LEGALIZES ABORTION
In addition, the organization points out, the year ends with Argentina on the verge of legalizing abortion, after the House of Representatives approved the bill on voluntary termination of pregnancy, which must be ratified on December 29 the Senate. Amnesty argues that the Senate cannot “turn its back” on Argentines because “legal abortion is an imperative of social justice, reproductive justice and human rights.”
Following Argentina, for Oxfam Intermón another of the good news of 2020 has been that the Government of Alberto Fernández has approved a tax on large fortunes with which it hopes to raise funds to deal with the consequences of the pandemic. According to the NGO, Latin American governments could raise up to $ 14.2 billion thanks to such a tax in a region where inequality is persistent. “Big fortunes owe a huge debt to our societies and it’s time for them to pay their fair share,” Oxfam claims.
The NGO also values the fact that the G-20 has agreed to a moratorium on bilateral external debt payments for the poorest countries. Thus, 46 of them have been able to redirect $ 5.7 billion to combat the pandemic and its consequences. However, “the measure falls short, first because it is a suspension of payments and not a final forgiveness, so the savings are temporary, and second because private creditors have not suspended or forgiven a single penny.”
The year that has ended has also been a year of mobilizations. “The protests sparked by the death at the hands of George Floyd’s police have been inspiring, because they have generated a movement and a transformation in the United States on racial justice,” said Human Rights Watch’s deputy director of the country’s program. (HRW), Laura Pitter.
“People have woken up to the way laws and policies have been used to perpetuate inequalities, not only in terms of police and criminal justice, but also in access to education, the housing, health and employment opportunities, which impacts the ability to accumulate wealth, ”he explains. “It will take time for this movement to generate real change but it looks like something has really changed,” he adds.
There have also been demonstrations in Belarus in which, recalls Rachel Denber, HRW’s deputy director for Europe, women have played a leading role. “Before, women were barely visible on the political scene” and President Alexander Lukashenko had been “condescending to women’s leadership.” However, it was a “triumvirate” of women who led the opposition in the August elections and it is they who “continue to lead many peaceful and creative protests,” she notes.