How is COVID affecting our partner communities?

You may have seen that we have recently launched a special appeal to help support our two partner organisations, CBISDO and AHISDO, during the Coronavirus pandemic.

How have we reached the decision to launch an appeal?  And how will the money be used?

As well as keeping in close contact with the two organisations’ offices by email, we have a representative based in Addis Ababa with a strong track record of working with small charities.  As the crisis began to affect Africa, we commissioned our representative to research the ways in which the two NGOs were adapting the sponsorship schemes in light of the pandemic, and to investigate whether they had additional needs that could not be met from their existing resources.  We received two detailed reports (one of which is pasted below) which concluded that the greatest impact on our sponsored children was the negative effect on their home situations – with their families suffering from a loss of income and rising prices of basic foodstuffs.  Whilst the children themselves would continue to receive a hot meal each day via the projects, their home environment was significantly affected by sudden need within their households.  This additional need could not be met from the money saved by activities which were temporarily paused on account of the pandemic.  Hence the greatest focus of our Coronavirus Appeal is towards providing these foodstuffs.  The estimate comes to some £50 per family per month, far beyond the scope of our normal sponsorship programme.  Although we do not expect to meet this need in full, the money raised from our appeal can contribute.  The second need, estimated at around £3 per family per month, is for sanitary materials.  The need for sanitation is greater than ever in the face of the pandemic, and this budget also includes additional items – such as face masks and hand sanitiser – that are targeted especially to the needs of the current situation.

We are keen to maintain a sense of transparency without overloading our supporters with detail.  We hope this post has helped to explain a bit more of the context for our appeal.  But if you do have additional questions or would like to find out more, please contact Paul Wilson directly – paul.wilson@tesfa-trust.org.

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TESFA TRUST UK

Needs Analysis Report (CBISDO)

1. Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has become the number one issue and priority agenda across the world. Every day the numbers of dead and affected people increase at an alarming rate shaking countries across continents.

In fighting the pandemic, a lockdown policy is implemented by most developed countries. Staying at home is also recommended in some developing countries. This approach is also endorsed by developing countries like Ethiopia as well. However, in Ethiopia, given close living arrangements, this strategy will be extremely difficult for a significant number of people.

The pandemic has many negative effects on the most vulnerable groups where the majority of livelihoods rely on daily income, casual labor and petty or street trades. To that end, staying at home will be feasible for only a very small segment of the population.

Ethiopia reported the first corona virus case on 13 March 2020 and the government took legal and policy measures to prevent and contain the pandemic.

The first measure was the establishment of a project office “Ethiopia COVID-19 Emergency Response Project” under the World Bank’s Environment and Social Framework (ESF); and developed a Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP). The Emergency Response Project aims to strengthen the Government’s capacity to be prepared to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, identify and engage national and international stakeholders.

The government has instituted a wide range of measures to contain the spread, to increase community awareness to promote preventive measures and practices, and to stimulate the economy:

• Schools and, sporting events, and public gatherings were initially suspended for 15 days as of 16 March 2020; and this has eventually been extended for an indefinite period.

• International flights were suspended and anyone entering the country should undergo a mandatory self-quarantine for 14 days.

• All land borders were closed and security forces deployed to halt the movement of people along the borders as of 23 March 2020.

• A five-month long state of emergency was declared on 8 April 2020; with major provisions like prohibiting organizations from laying off workers and terminating employment, banning meetings of more than four people for religious, government and other organizations, including political gatherings.

• The government has strengthened its efforts to increase awareness and prevent the spread of the virus: the Ministry of Health provides regular updates.

• Quarantine centres have been established throughout the country.

However, the “Stay Home” advice and policy has proved to be difficult to enforce as the majorities of the population live on meager daily income from casual labour and street vending.

It is therefore high time to provide support for low income households among the residents of the operational areas of AHISDO & CBISDO. To this effect Tesfa Trust has initiated a needs analysis study to identify the impacts of the pandemic and the associated needs of the organizations and community members.

The general objectives of the Needs Analysis are to

1. Identify the impacts of the pandemic on the organizations (AHISDO/CBISDO) and the community;

2. The needs of the organizations (AHISDO/CBISDO) and the community caused by the restrictive measures; and

3. To review existing supports of Tesfa Trust and design effective support mechanisms to address the identified organizational and community needs.

The scope of the analysis includes identifying:

1. The needs and impacts on the organisations as a result of COVID restrictions and current circumstances?

2. The impacts of the pandemic and the needs of communities at this time?

3. The impact on the usual operations of the organizations?  To what degree have they had to change their operations?

4. To what degree are the operations of the organizations meeting real and urgent community needs? 

5. How closely are the organizations fulfilling their charitable / constitutional goals?

6. What are the key risks the organizations are facing?

2. Analysis Method

The method used to conduct the needs analysis was visiting the office and the working condition and discuss with the General Manager of CBISDO, Ato Ato Mesfin Tegene on June 8, 2020.

3. Situational Analysis

1. Organizational Operations

CBISDO is operating with all program and some administrative staff, and the office open for five days of the week.

Some support offices like the Library, the feeding centre and the income generating wing are closed. The General Manager and the senior program officer are managing the office in turns coming to the office every other day.

2. Program

CBISDO has 179 children sponsored by Tesfa Trust. There are also 201 elderly people with limited sponsors.

Due to the restriction on gatherings introduced as a result of COVID 19 outbreak, it has become impossible for CBISDO to continue with the long standing lunch program for the children and the elderly. Therefore CBISDO has introduced a “Take Away” system whereby the children come and collect packed food. This approach has proved to be effective and appreciated by the children and government partner offices.

However, this was reported to be not sufficient unless families/guardians of the children are supported to make the family food secure and survive out of the economic impact of the pandemic.

3. Finance

CBISDO is financially stable and with the current cash flow position the organization can run for three months.

3. Impact of COVID -19

1. Organizational Impact

The major organizational impact of COVID – 19 on CBISDO was reported to be a sizable number of redundant/idle staff. Now with total employees of 68, more than 51 percent or up to 35 employees are redundant/idle who are still paid due to the impossibility of layoff as enacted in the state of emergency law. The monthly payroll is ETB 85,000 (£ 2073.17). There is continuous demand for salary increment by all staffs, even under this difficult time.

2. Financial Impact

The financial impacts of the pandemic were reported to be

• Loss of income from the income generating activities as they are forced to close,

• additional budget requirement for the feeding program as a result of market price escalation for food items, and

• lack of regular donors for the elderly program except some volunteer Ethiopians supporting the elderly feeding service in kind.

3. Community Impact

Most of the community members in CBISDO’s operational area live on income they make out of casual works like daily laboring and petty trade. The outbreak of COVID -19 and the policy of stay at home, restricted movements and gatherings have put them out of work and no income to support themselves. This has made them food insecure. So the major impact of the pandemic on community members is food shortage at household level.

3. Needs Analysis

The major need of community members is food stuff. The experience to address this challenge by government, civil society organizations, and international aid organizations is to provide a monthly supply of basic food items and sanitation materials for every household.

1. Food

The basic food items are Wheat flour, Teff, Pasta/Macaroni, Sugar and oil. The quantity supplied varies from donor to donor, but the minimum amount is considered for this analysis as presented in the following table.

Monthly Food Requirement of Families of CBISDO Sponsored Children

Item	Unit	Qty per household Per month	Number of Sponsored Children Households	Total Qty per household Per month	Unit Price in ETB	Cost Per Household per month in ETB	Total Cost for all Households in ETB
Wheat Flour	kg	25	179	4,475	25	625	111,875
Teff	kg	25	179	4,475	40	1,000	179,000
Pasta/Macaroni	kg	10	179	1,790	25	250	44,750
Sugar	kg	3	179	537	20	60	10,740
Oil	litre	5	179	895	90	450	80,550
Total Cost in ETB	–	–	–	–	–	2,385	426,915
Total Cost in GBP	–	–	–	–	–	58	10,413

From the detailed analysis of the required food items and the associated budget to acquire and supply, CBISDO needs £ 58 per household which makes it £10,413 for the total Tesfa Trust supported families per month.

CBISDO proposes to continue with the current take away feeding program for the children using the sponsorship fund. In has the intention to provide additional household food support through raising fund or requesting existing partners like Tesfa Trust.

2. Sanitation Materials

To prevent the spread of COVID- 19 and help community members protect themselves from the pandemic basic sanitary materials as recommended by the WHO and the Ethiopian government needs to be provided. These basic sanitary materials include sanitizer, face mask, and soap.

Monthly Sanitation Materials Requirement of Families of CBISDO Sponsored Children

Item	Unit	Qty per household	Number of Sponsored Children Households	Total Qty	Unit Price in ETB	Cost Per Household in ETB	Total Cost for all Households in ETB
Sanitizer	litre	0.5	179	90	75	38	6,713
Face Mask (Cloth)	No.	4	179	716	12	48	8,592
Hand Soap	pcs.	2	179	358	15	30	5,370
Detergent Soap	kg	2	179	358	11	22	3,938
Total Cost in ETB	–	–	–	–	–	138	24,613
Total Cost in GBP	–	–	–	–	–	3	600

From the detailed analysis of the required sanitation materials and the associated budget to acquire and supply, CBISDO needs £ 3 per household which makes it £ 600 for the total Tesfa Trust supported families per month.

3. Risks

Two major risks affecting the operations and survival of the organization were mentioned to include:

Fund sustainability is a major risk due to the global and national economic impact of the pandemic.

Unavailability of funding for the elderly is becoming a challenge and may force the organization to the extent of closing the program.

Report Compiled by: Tadesse Haile Signature: