A young girl in Nepal thrilled to receive her hygiene kit from VSO
©VSO/Prakash Mathema

See VSO’s COVID-19 response in action

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we asked our supporters to donate to help us adapt quickly. Thanks to people like you we raised £223k to fund this emergency work. This fantastic support helped us adapt around 80% of our programmes in just ten days. Here are some examples of what we were able to achieve.

Nepal: keeping girls safe and learning

980 families provided with hygiene kits
980 families were provided with hygiene kits including soap, towel, toothbrush, reusable sanitary pad, underwear, nail cutter, hygiene kit bag and liquid chlorine.
Education via radio during lockdown
By developing radio broadcasts - and providing in-need families with portable radios - we reached some of the most marginalised children whilst their schools were closed.

Myanmar: helping children return to learning

10,000 back to school kits for children
VSO distributed back to school kits for 10,000 children, which contain milk, soap and face masks.
744 food packs for local teachers and their families.
VSO provided nutrition support for 744 teachers including rice, oil and beans.
Primary teachers gain skills to teach remotely
27 teachers were provided with digital literacy training to be able to educate students remotely.

Nigeria: helping mothers secure a livelihood

150 women learnt to make and sell face masks
VSO trained seamstresses like Mumagkur Hamidu were able to provide for their families by producing and selling face masks.
Women were able to provide for their families.

Bangladesh: helping primary education continue through lockdown

50 teachers visited refugee children at home
50 VSO trained Big Sisters visiting refugee children in their shelters during lockdown - bringing colouring books, games and songs.
4,200 children able to continue their education
4,200 children like Monir were able to continue their education through the home visits.

I hope you enjoyed these examples of how your support helped. Thank you so much again. You can read more examples of our COVID-19 response below.

Find out more