Focus’ shift
The Upside series we’re launching aims to keep you informed about how the partner organisations we trust and fund are responding to the COVID-19 crisis. A disaster changes the world and our view of it. The Upside will highlight this shift.
© SOS MEDITERRANEE / Claire Juchat
There’s a lot of coronavirus “positivity” out there: silver linings, survivor stories, enterprising initiatives and lots of funny jokes and memes. They comfort us, restore hope and strengthen our solidarity, showing resourcefulness and humour that helps us all live through this time, until the smoke clears.
The Upside series we’re launching aims to keep you informed about how the organisations we trust and fund are responding to the crisis.
As Rebecca Solnit recently wrote, a disaster changes the world and our view of it. “Our focus shifts, and what matters shifts. What is weak breaks under new pressure, what is strong holds, and what was hidden emerges”. The Upside will highlight this shift in world regions where systems are often weak, but people are stronger.
© IFRC / Jenelle Eli
Taking inspiration from the words of Ari Johnson, CEO of Muso, an organization that works to prevent child and maternal mortality in Mali: “Over the years, our organization has survived and continued to serve amid a coup d’état, an Al Qaeda occupation, a refugee crisis, attacks by extremist groups, and active conflict. The skills we will need right now have been forged in this fire”.
Follow the #Upside series on these pages.
#2: Repurposing
#3: The Frontliners
