Things were desperate for Izaílde Silva, in fact, they were about as bleak as they could be: it was lunchtime and the 58-year-old housekeeper had no food on the stove. There was nothing in the pantry at the woman’s home in Belém do Pará, a city of 1.4 million people in northern Brazil. Victoria and Paola, Silva’s granddaughters, didn’t know it yet, but there would be no lunch, and likely no dinner, either.

Silva’s work as a maid—and the income that provided meals for Victoria and Paola—evaporated as the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the nation. What little savings she had were now gone, and Silva’s family was staring hunger in the face.

Such predicaments were not unexpected: in mid-April, the United Nations had warned many needy families worldwide could face difficulties from the global economic crisis the COVID-19 pandemic triggered. As many as 386 million children could die of hunger this year alone; another 66 million might lapse into extreme poverty.

Children such as Vitória, age 8, and Paola, age 9, depend on school meals but could count only on the money Izaílde earned to buy food. 

Arif Husain, Chief Economist and Director of the Food Security Analysis and Trends Service at the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Rome said “we need to come together to deal with the problem of lack of food for millions of people who are already at a trickle or the cost will be too high: too many lives will be lost.”   

He stressed the world is experiencing an acute food and income crisis and is at category three of the five UN phases to classify global problems related to poverty. This means that there is a lack of access to food and malnutrition above the usual. Category five is mass starvation, he said. 

A cause for all 

The situation experienced by Izaílde and her family in Belém, has been repeated in many other Brazilian homes. People who had just enough to survive now lack even the basics. That day when money and food ran out, the grandmother went to look for the neighbors and realized, sadly, that they were in the same situation: without a job, without money, and without food.    

Brazil’s economy is expected to shrink by 5.2 percent this year due to the economic impact of the coronavirus, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). So-called “informal workers,” including domestic workers—numbering 6 million in Brazil—will be hardest hit according to a survey carried out by the Institute of Economic and Applied Research (Ipea).  

Faced with this situation, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Brazil created a “Share Hope” campaign in order to guarantee one of the most basic human needs: food. The initial proposal was to provide a food basket for three months to each of the more than three thousand families who were already receiving assistance from the organization in the Brazilian states of Pará, Amazonas, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceara, and Bahia. The group’s goal was to collect 10,000 baskets costing approximately U.S. $11 (60 Brazilian reals) each. 

Surprising Response 

Through the website, donors were motivated to give with the slogan “A ‘like’ doesn’t feed—a donation does,” which was released on social networks and other media.

On May 2,  at 4 pm, in partnership with the Novo Tempo Network and the  São Paulo Adventist University Center (UNASP), Engenheiro Coelho campus, ADRA broadcast a concert featuring singers Leonardo Gonçalves, Jeferson Pillar, Pedro Valença,  Dilson, and Débora Santos, among others, who joined the initiative in order to encourage Internet users to embrace the project.  

More than 6 thousand baskets were collected during the event. Adding the gifts received during the entire Share Hope campaign, including donations from large institutions and individuals,  there are already 16,585 food baskets provided to families in need. With that, the initial objective of helping three thousand families has grown to include another 1,500 families in Pernambuco and Maranhão.   

Gratitude 

Thanks to the help of people willing to help, Izaílde’s story had a different, happier ending: on the day her money and food ran out, someone recorded a video telling the situation of her family, and of others. The video circulated on the phones of people across the city via WhastApp and reached ADRA volunteers, who offered direct help through the Share Hope project.      

“We are convinced that the compassionate side of human beings is strengthened in the midst of crises such as the one we’re experiencing. And we’re grateful to each of our donors for continuing to allow us to bring help to those who need it most,” said Fábio Sales,ADRA Brazil director.

The Share Hope campaign remains active during the month of June. 

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site