Coping with the COVID-19: supporting our staff and our community

Amidst the novel coronavirus outbreak that is shaking the world, people all over the world are standing in solidarity with their neighbors and exploring new ways of being.
However, the outbreak is having a disproportionately devastating effect on middle and low-income populations—especially in countries such as Rwanda— where the unemployment rate is already 18.8% and 49.2% of the labor force are engaged in casual occupations (those that pay hourly or per diem at best).
We don’t need to reiterate the fact that the closure of all non-essential businesses and organizations, with the aim of slowing the spread of the virus, has had many unintended economic consequences.

As an organization, we value our human resources above all else and commitment to our community is at
the core of our operations. In order to support our staff during this lockdown, REAP has committed to continue paying our team members their full salaries, even those who cannot work from home. We have also mobilized to donate the produce from our farm to families with the greatest need in Musha. Last Monday, 16 families from Musha received vegetables from our farm and we hope to donate to at least 20 more with the next harvest.

In the pictures:

Our Community Organizers, Briget and Jerome, and Emmanuel Karemera (President of our Community Board) collect the food supplies and deliver them to Musha Sector Office.