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UNHCR is distributing cash over cell phones to 6,000 vulnerable families uprooted by the confrontation already facing a fatal Ebola epidemic in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Fortunately, life-saving help now comes from the cell phone, cutting off the transmission of physical interactions.
Recently, a text message informed him that US$75 had been transferred in coins and went to the nearest bank to withdraw some of them. The coins buy as much as she wants for her and her son, Kapule, who is 30 years old.
Armed teams have forced more than a million people like Solonita and Kapule to flee their homes in North Kivu province in the past 12 months. Most of them discovered safety at the places of displacement or were welcome in local communities.
“It’s going to cost me a lot. I’ll buy a blanket.
In some parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, ongoing violent clashes make IT very difficult for UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency and its partners to provide coverage and assistance and launch important activities to prevent the spread of coronavirus in refugee camps and IDP settlements. UNHCR has provided committees in these communities to temporarily manage remotely until the security scenario improves.
Although no cases of COVID-19 have been reported to date among refugee or internally displaced communities, WHO has reported more than 470 cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mainly in the capital Kinshasa, and 30 deaths.
To prevent the spread of the disease, UNHCR is strengthening its fitness and sanitation activities in camps, sites and transit centres.
Along with 6,000 other dislocated families in North Kivu province, Solonita won a cell phone and SIM card in a distribution where UNHCR has put special measures in place to reduce physical contact and raise awareness of the measures that the DRC government has announced will save the spread of the coronavirus.
Beneficiaries at the site have their temperature screened, are able to wash their hands at the installed handwashing stations, while keeping sufficient physical distance from each.
Providing cell phones and SIM cards to displaced families allows them to get electronic payments. They can prioritize desires ranging from food and clothing to physical care and housing.
“It also allows us to communicate with them at a time when we want to practice social estrangement,” said Ibrahima Diane, director of the UNHCR office in Beni.
“This allows us to communicate with them at a time when we want to practice social estrangement.”
Globally, monetary assistance now accounts for a higher percentage of UNHCR assistance than classical in-kind distribution. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than 60,000 Congolese internally displaced persons won monetary assistance in 2019.
Worldwide, about 20 million other people forcibly displaced in more than a hundred countries earned more than $2.4 billion in the 3 years between 2016 and 2019.
Efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 occur as the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to fight to eliminate the Ebola virus, which has killed another 2279 people since the last outbreak began in 2018. According to WHO, another 478 people have died of Ebola in the Beni region.
In total, more than five million people have been uprooted by the fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, making it the largest population of internally displaced persons in Africa. Forced displacement mainly affects the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, Greater Kasai and Tanganyika.
Funding is scarce in the ability of other displaced people to meet their own fundamental needs. As of April 2020, only 18% of the US$154 million required for unHCR’s operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had been received.
© UNHCR 2001-2020
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