Scouts in Guyana address food insecurity for families affected by Covid-19

The halt in economic activity due to the global pandemic has caused many households to suffer from food insecurity across Guyana. Scouts in Guyana started the project with a great idea that was later founded by the Hand in Hand Mutual Fire and Life Insurance Companies, to bring 170 Venezuelan migrant families food and cleaning supplies. Most of the families came to Guyana from Venezuela where they work on daily sales in the streets of the city, where their income had been directly affected since the begining of the nationwide lockdown. 

To date, the Scouts have helped an additional 80 families in two elderly homes and one orphanage.

Scout Leaders from the St. Margaret´s Scout group spent their Easter weekend serving their community in May. The items in the the support hampers include rice, canned meat and tuna, flour, sugar, onions, garlic, pasta, peas, fruits, hand sanitizers and bleach that cost an equivalent of $50 USD. This was just the beginning of the Scout group’s community service journey.  

With the news of their efforts rapidly spreading, anonymous donations started to come along to the St. Margaret´s Scout group. A recent donation of food and cleaning items has just been received by the group, to enable them to distribute the items to more families in need.

Ensuring that all safety measures like social distancing were practiced, the Scout group was able to assist people taking shelter in churches, and a shelter for homeless and abused children and women. 

St. Margaret’s Scout group was contacted by people in two remote villages who had been cut off from their usual supplies of food and other items due to the closures of transport and shops. The villages were asking for support in food supplies, but the group’s donations were limited by that point. One of the Scout Leaders reached out to her family and friends to raise funds and the group managed to raise $4,000 USD. With this donation the group was able to distribute 120 hampers to the villages in need. Reaching the families in the villages was not logistically easy, so Scouts collaborated with the community to move packages in boats and manage to deliver the hampers.

The Scout group have taken the initiative and delivered a remarkable response to the urgent needs of their communities in Guyana, where income and food were not easily accessible by many during this challenging time of the global health pandemic. 

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, Scouts around the world have been responding to the needs of their communities on an individual and group level from awareness raising to deliveries of essential items. World Scouting set up a Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund, where you can donate to help Scouts continue supporting their communities in need. All funds will be channeled directly to support National Scout Organizations.