Alinea International Pivots Global Programs to Pandemic Response
CALGARY, AB - Ukraine joined countries around the world in implementing quarantine measures last spring to help combat the spread of COVID-19. As the days under quarantine increased, so did reports of gender-based violence.
Alinea, an international development consultancy, responded by working with police and civil society groups to develop strategies to address this alarming trend, which is just one example of how the pandemic’s impacts reached beyond health.
In Ethiopia, the pandemic coincided with planting season where farmers needed seeds and fertilizer. Alinea distributed personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 prevention communication packages to help partners and project personnel continue their work with producers.
Indigenous Leader in remote Putumayo Region of Colombia wearing PPE provided by Comunica Project
As the pandemic created a need for PPE around the world, Alinea in Colombia provided this essential gear to regional hospitals and Indigenous communities.
Meanwhile in Sri Lanka, Alinea noticed COVID-19 posters were not in Tamil. The team translated these important messages and distributed them to Tamil communities.
Alinea incorporated these responses, unique to the pandemic’s effects in each country, into programming funded by Global Affairs Canada. These projects include the Canada-Ukraine Police Development Project (Ukraine), Agricultural Growth Programme (Ethiopia), Building Extractive Sector Governance Program “Comunica” (Colombia) and National Languages Equality Advancement Project (Sri Lanka).
Grocery delivery to family in Ukraine
As the pandemic wore on, many families in developing countries lost their only income sources to social distancing requirements and restrictions on movement and tourism. Through corporate and staff donations, Alinea connected vulnerable groups with what they needed in their communities – like protective masks and antiseptics for domestic violence victims in the Lviv region of Ukraine, and grocery deliveries and cash transfers for families living under Colombia’s strict quarantine.
Family in a community on the outskirts of Bogota, Colombia receiving groceries
Food prices in Tanzania increased by more than 200 per cent. Here, Alinea supported the provision of food staples to female-headed households in collaboration with the non-profit organization Kivulini. Amid market and restaurant closures in Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province, elderly farmers working in organic vegetable production received supplements to their reduced incomes.
While Alinea’s project work is overseas, the company’s Canadian offices and headquarters are located in Calgary and Gatineau. Throughout the pandemic, Alinea provided 10 local organizations with funding to support their crisis prevention and response programming efforts.
Rice and seeds for eldery farmers in Vietnam
To learn more about how the Alinea team works every day to be catalysts of change and opportunity around the world, visit Alinea’s website and follow Alinea on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
