Meet Regaine
Millions like Regaine are being affected by a double crisis of COVID-19 and the growing Global Hunger Pandemic.
Brazil is currently one of the countries being hit hardest by the COVID-19 crisis–only the United States and India have recorded more cases and deaths due to the virus. In the shadow of the pandemic, around 60 percent of the country’s residents do not have as much food as before, and the number of people actually starving has doubled compared to recent years.
When hunger grows like this, hope can be hard to find.
Just ask Regaine.
As a domestic worker in Brazil, she had often struggled to provide for her family. Keeping a roof over their heads and food in the pantry was a week-by-week worry for her.
Then, the COVID-19 pandemic tightened its grip on Brazil, and Regaine was one of many who lost her job in the country. The impact of COVID-19 is well known, but those who were already at a disadvantage experienced the worst effects and things quickly got worse for Regaine’s family.
As her family’s hunger grew, she had no one to turn to for help. Her former employer couldn’t help, her government didn’t help, and her friends and neighbors were experiencing the same difficulties.
This is what too many are facing right now as not just one, but two pandemics are destroying lives around the globe. People like Regaine are trapped between two deadly crises: COVID-19 and now the Global Hunger Pandemic.
In the past 12 months, a million more people are near starvation. And many are living on less than $1.90 a day. Brazil is at a critical phase of acute COVID-19 infections, and many other countries are seeing the effects that COVID-19 has had on people’s ability to maintain a living and feed their families.
As Regaine’s cupboards were becoming bare, she heard about an initiative called “Share Hope.”
It was a project being run by ADRA in her city to protect families like hers from starvation. ADRA provided Regaine with a prepaid bank card that allowed her to buy some basics for the first time in weeks.
With the money Regaine received, she is now able to buy food to support her family! Regaine plans to hang her card up in her house after she has used it.
“I’m going to look after the card as a reminder of the help that came when I needed it most.”
The money Regaine received that day meant much more than the possibility of food. It meant more than the end of hunger.
