Overview Sanitation & Hygiene Education food & livelihoods Advocacy

When a crisis like the coronavirus hits, we are all impacted, but it is the poorest and most marginalised communities around the world who suffer most. With the limited supply of masks and disinfectant, and the soaring prices of these items, the outbreak of COVID-19 has placed an exponentially greater burden on vulnerable groups as many of them cannot shoulder these expenses. That is why since the end of January, we at Oxfam have been working with our partners and people from low-income households to safeguard public health in Hong Kong and across the globe, by distributing protective equipment, providing clean water, constructing handwashing facilities and promoting hygiene in the communities.

Hong Kong

Oxfam staff member showing a senior how to put on a mask properly

We have been distributing masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectant to vulnerable groups including seniors who live alone, families who live in subdivided flats and people with disabilities through 60 plus local organisations.

We worked with our partners to interview close to 150 cleaners from across 15 districts to understand their working conditions during the epidemic. We urged the HKSAR government and outsourced cleaning companies to provide cleaners with the protective equipment they need.

Sanitation worker learning how to wash her hands properly.

Many ethnic minority cleaners neither speak Chinese nor English. So, sharing hygiene information with them in their native language enables them to learn about how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 more effectively.

Mainland China

Person in protective gear disinfecting a building.

Oxfam’s teams in the Mainland and partner organisations reached out to vulnerable groups, such as people living with HIV/AIDS, poor seniors, migrant children and cleaners since the outbreak of COVID-19. Here, staff from one of Oxfam’s partners in Gansu is disinfecting a nursing home.

Staff handing out relief items and recipients reading a leaflet.

In order to help Burmese migrants who live in Yunnan better understand how to prevent the spread of the virus, our partner disseminated leaflets in Burmese.

Health worker writing. Oxfam staff standing beside her.

In Yunnan, we donated protective equipment to rural clinics.

Overseas

Indian woman squatting and washing her pots and pans in a rundown place.

India: High rents in India have forced poor people into crowded and cramped living spaces where they share communal toilets and water facilities, leaving them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19. Oxfam India carried out hygiene promotion and education in these high-risk spots to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Oxfam staff disinfecting a refugee camp.

Bangladesh: Oxfam staff spraying disinfectant to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Cox’s Bazar, which is ‘home’ to close to 1 million Rohingya refugees.

Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel: Oxfam and local partner, Rural Women Development Society, distributing hygiene packages to families who cannot afford them during lockdown.

Fighting COVID-19 with vulnerable communities