At the outset of the now-ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, over a dozen chapters, branches, and affiliate organizations of ACORN International issued a global call for the social protection of low-income families and individuals.

Global social protection in times of global crisis

We low-income families are living in the popular areas of Douala, Toronto, Mumbai, Paris, Lima, Manchester, Tunis, New Orleans and Edinburg are victims of the health crisis. We lost our job, we lost much of our income. Yet we still have to pay our rent, our electricity bills and buy something to feed our families. As the lockdown comes to an end, we are tens of millions of people to find ourselves in rent debt in France, the UK, the United States or Canada. This is how we are reduced to misery and hunger.

Written by Seema Rajpal June 23rd, 2020 from Edex Live

Hyderabad-based Gomathi Iyer is doing some unforgettable covers on Instagram and before the lockdown, was helping girls in one of the largest slums in the world, Dharavi in Mumbai learn to sing.

Soutik Biswas June 23rd, 2020 from BBC News

In one of the world’s most congested shanty towns, social distancing is not a luxury people can afford. And density is a friend of the coronavirus.

Imagine more than 500,000 people spread over 2.5 grubby sq km, less than a square mile. That’s a population larger than Manchester living in an area smaller than Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

by Dharmendra Kumar — June 24, 2020 from Counter Currents

It is said that COVID does not differentiate. Yet, people on the margin have been differently impacted by COVID. Street vendors are one such vulnerable group. With lockdown, streets wore a deserted look. Street livelihood vanished all of a sudden. Street vendors, generally outlawed and operating with meagre capital and various kinds of livelihood insecurities and restrictive and punitive regulatory authorities found it hard to survive through the lockdown.

Laxmi Kamble our  frontline field coordinator  for distributing food provisions during covid 19 featured in the Washington Post story on Dharavi.  In One of the World’s Largest Slums, the Fight Against Coronavirus has Turned into a Struggle to Survive.

Report from Sammy Ndirangu, ACORN Kenya organizer.

It’s now nearly two months since the first case of Corona Virus was reported in Kenya. Currently there are 396 persons who have contacted the virus with a death toll of 17 people in the whole country with 144 people fully recovered from the infection. Nairobi has been on the lead of the highest number of infections followed by Mombasa.

Report from Orfa Camacho Guillinta, ACORN Peru.

In Peru, the Government decreed a Health Emergency on March 14th. We have 46 days in a state of emergency, with an order of social isolation.