Coronavirus Impact on Whole Child International

In the midst of this international crisis and pandemic we want to share with you how COVID-19 affects Whole Child International at this moment. Things are rapidly changing but this is the information we can share at this time. 

Impact on El Salvador 

El Salvador is where the majority of our team is based and is the country where we are currently focusing our efforts. The government issued a Red Alert to respond to the emergency; this means that all government resources can be destined for emergency response and all government staff is working on this response. At this time, until April 13th in El Salvador schools and universities are closed, daycare centers are closed, individuals over 60 must work from home, quarantine is in place for travelers from Italy, Spain, Germany, Iran, South Korea, China, and the list keeps growing. The government has closed the airport since the evening of March 17 for the next 15 days. It is only allowing the landing of airplanes carrying cargo or humanitarian assistance.

Impact on our project with USAID 

Due to the impact of the coronavirus and the restrictions on movement and activities, WCI has had to delay some major training it had planned. We are working with the government and our partners so we can implement these trainings at a later date. 

WCI´s USAID project areas of work for the following two months in response to the COVID-19 restrictions: 

We will delay: 

• Collection of QCUALs (an assessment of the quality of care for children in residential and daycare centers) and child development baseline data.

• Caregiver Training Sessions.

• Managerial and ECCD (Early Childhood Care and Development) university course launches.

During this time we will continue to: 

• Update Caregiver Training course materials. We have carried out two sessions, and need to update the content for 6 more sessions. 

• Carry out conversations with ISNA (the Government's child welfare agency) regarding WCI´s transfer of these materials to ISNA´s training school.

• Plan with ISNA on how they would use WCI´s assessment of the quality of care for children in residential and daycare centers as part of their monitoring and supervising structure for early childhood and protection centers.

• Make adjustments to ECCD university course materials to expand the mentoring section for ISNA supervisors and their use of QCUALs (an assessment of the quality of care for children in residential and daycare centers) as a monitoring tool.

• Continue the gap analysis of the child protection system and work to improve EL Salvador's child protection system.

Internally, WCI is following the policies below to protect the health and wellbeing of its staff:  

WCI El Salvador is currently teleworking to safeguard staff and their families. Specifically, people over 60 years old are required to stay at home, preferably not going out to supermarkets, pharmacies, etc., unless absolutely urgent. We will continue to have small group meetings with the government and/or counterparts on an AS NEEDED basis. Will prioritize video conferences if necessary.

• Halt non-essential foreign travel for the immediate future, awaiting USAID guidelines. For staff outside El Salvador, they must work from the US.

• Halt non-essential travel for work within El Salvador until April 13th.

• Halt external trainings or workshops. 

• Modify our contractual agreements with UCA and QCUALS (an assessment of the quality of care for children in residential and daycare centers) enumerators to respond to changing implementation context.

• We are following WHO guidelines to prevent contagion, instructing our staff and project partners to maintain social distancing.

Thank you for your continued support in this difficult time. We are actively working to insure that children and caregivers have the resources they need in this difficult time.

Stay tuned for future updates. 

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