As we all know, on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new coronavirus, which causes covid-19, a pandemic. How has this crisis affected our collaborators?
Before joining Humans for Abundance, the families that are now ecological restorers lived mainly from subsistence farming; that is, from the sale of their agricultural products, traditionally produced (with pesticides and chemicals).
Currently, they are converting their lands into ecological farms and reforesting these with native plants; therefore, they no longer have the need to go out and sell their products so often, because their main source of income is now the sale of eco-services through Humans for Abundance. This means that, thanks to the money they generate, our restorers have been able to stay home to comply with the mandatory isolation decreed by the Ecuadorean Government.
In the Ecuadorean context, the pandemic has now spread throughout the entire country, but some regions and provinces have been more affected than others, with the province of Guayas, in the Coastal region, being the hardest hit of all. On the other hand, the Amazon region, where Humans for Abundance’s ecological restorers live, has been the least affected by this crisis. However, as of April 29, there were 243 confirmed cases throughout the region and 10 deaths.
As mentioned above, the entire country is in mandatory isolation, which means that all Ecuadorean residents must remain, above all, at home. Consequently, thanks to being part of Humans for Abundance, our ecological restorers have been able to stay safely at home, all while continuing the important work of restoring their farms.