Since our last newsletter the world has changed in some notable ways. The Covid-19 pandemic has touched the lives of nearly everyone worldwide in one way or another, but it produces serious humanitarian crises for the millions of people living in slums and informal settlements worldwide. In the communities where SDI is active, residents live in overcrowded informal settlements without access to safe and hygienic water and sanitation services. Staying at home, self-isolating, social distancing and frequent hand washing are very difficult if not impossible and dangerous for many of our members.

Moreover, most of our members work in the informal economy and are daily wage earners. Lockdowns mean the loss of work, wages leaving millions without any source of income. In many settlements, citizens have been beaten and even killed by the police for breaking lockdown rules while trying to provide food or income for their families. 

SDI federations are working hard to develop methods to identify and protect vulnerable groups and limit infections. Over the past months, SDI has supported communities to deal with the food and income crisis facing informal settlement dwellers and negotiate with official water providers to improve access to water supplies and hand washing facilities. In addition, we have supported federations to improve access to water and sanitation services and provided personal protective equipment such as face masks, hand sanitiser and soap, slum-friendly hand washing stations, and created awareness among slum communities through the production of relevant educational materials such as posters, pamphlets, and more.

We are tracking the hard work of our affiliates closely and sharing these efforts via our blog and social media channels. We invite you to visit these sites to learn more about the important work being done on the ground to curb the spread of this pandemic while simultaneously addressing the affects of these preventative measures on our cities' most vulnerable populations.