Responding to COVID-19: Winter 2021

Job and related income losses stemming from economic contractions in the face of lockdown and shelter-at-home orders (essential public health measures for combatting the spread of the virus) have disrupted livelihoods for the world’s most vulnerable communities, be they refugees and other displaced peoples or residents of population-dense, low-income neighborhoods or farmers in remote areas. The lives of vulnerable communities around the world have become even more precarious during the pandemic, with socially and economically marginalized peoples disproportionately impacted by COVID- 19’s health and economic fallout. In this issue of Intersections, MCC staff from around the world examine how MCC and its partners have operated during this pandemic, adapting humanitarian assistance, livelihood, health, education and other initiatives to meet the ever-evolving challenges presented by COVID-19.

• Navigating pandemic uncertainties in the provision of humanitarian assistance by Pinky Madrid
• Three health strategies for preventing COVID-19 transmission in vulnerable communities by Paul Shetler Fast
• Keep calm and ship on by Tom Wenger
• The sew must go on! by Kaitlyn Mast
• Equipping Cambodian partners to carry out humanitarian assistance safely during a pandemic by Charles and Crystal Conklin
• Accompanying Colombian Anabaptist partners in adjusting work in the face of COVID-19 by Sara Melgarejo
• Heightened vulnerability for migrants on the Mexico-U.S. border during the COVID-19 pandemic by Ana Hinojosa and Emily Miller
• Pandemic relief to Anabaptist congregations in the United States by Dina González-Piña
• Adapting agricultural livelihoods initiatives in East Africa to pandemic realities by Bruce Buckwalter and James Kanyari
• Accompanying marginalized communities in southern Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic by Amanda Talstra and Monica Tapkida
• COVID-sensitive humanitarian assistance in Ukraine by Nadiya Tykhovod