Time to help the helpers
Like much else in life, pandemics aren’t fair. They take a larger toll on some cohorts of society than on others. Hardest hit, it will be news to no one, are typically those not favoured by fate or good fortune in the first place.
The COVID-19 crisis has shone a stark light on social inequities in the world’s richest countries. As the Star reported this week, research shows that Ontarians testing positive for COVID-19 are more likely to live in neighbourhoods characterized by precarious housing, lower incomes and greater concentration of immigrants and visible minorities.
For those most vulnerable to the virus, the question is seldom whether or not to go to the cottage, but instead on stresses and risks that are far more fundamental. Is there enough to pay the rent? For groceries? Is it safe to go to work?
The dreadful double-whammy of the coronavirus crisis has been that those organizations devoted to levelling our social imbalances are among the biggest victims.
For charities across Canada, for the entire non-profit sector, for those agencies that stand as the consciences of our communities, the age of COVID-19 has been a particularly dire time.
Even as demand surges, the wherewithal to meet it has evaporated. Revenue dries up as fund-raising events — the galas, the walk-a-thons, the concerts and music festivals, the bake, book and rummage sales — are cancelled.
Donations have dwindled. Empty churches — many already struggling financially — don’t feed collection plates. Food bank shelves have emptied.
Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder of War Child Canada, has called it “a brutal irony” that resources have disappeared even as the need of those bearing the biggest brunt of COVID-19 has increased.
David Morley, CEO of UNICEF Canada, has called the non-profit sector — which employs more than a million Canadians and accounts for more than eight per cent of the economy — an “incredible social structure” vital to the life of the country.
Last month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Emergency Community Support Fund of $350 million for charities struggling for survival during the pandemic. The money is to flow through three national groups — the United Way, the Red Cross and Community Foundations Canada — to the country’s 86,000 registered charities.
It was a good first step, as some estimates suggest donations will decline by $15 billion or more and about 200,000 workers from the sector could be laid off.
“I think anyone looking for a quick return to ‘normal’ will be badly disappointed,” said Bruce MacDonald, president and CEO of Imagine Canada.
“Whatever the new ‘normal’ is, one thing is clear — more than ever, communities in recovery are going to need vibrant charities and non-profits of all types.”
To their credit, some people have risen to the challenge in impressive ways.
For instance, as the Star reported, Mark Carey, 45, of Toronto plans to run 135 kilometres around the perimeter of the city on May 30 to raise money for the Red Cross’s COVID-19 relief efforts. Others are taking on long portages or organizing bike-a-thons on stationary equipment.
So the challenge abides. Come up with a virus-beating idea to help raise money for those vital organizations and agencies battered by COVID-19. Donate to your usual charities, whether or not they are holding events. Donate online.
After all, let’s be frank. A lot of folks comfortably ensconced on the economic ladder, people inconvenienced, perhaps, but largely unscathed by the lockdown, have remarked, with no small satisfaction, how little they’ve been spending during the past two months.
Anne Frank said that “no one has ever become poor by giving.” Maya Angelou said she found that “giving liberates the soul of the giver.”
Experience suggests they’re both right.