Dear Thousand Currents community, 

Like many of you, we are adjusting to the drastic changes in our norms and routine that COVID-19 requires, while managing new fears and concerns. Over the coming weeks, we will continue to find new ways of living and working. Yet, even as we shift how we work, our core mission of supporting grassroots groups and social movements in the Global South remains unwavering. 

We are more committed than ever to stand firmly by our grassroots partners as they respond to this pandemic, while bolstering our support of their long-term systems-transformation work. We have been checking in with partners to see how COVID-19 is affecting their communities. We continue to provide flexible support and we are adjusting deliverables as requested by partners. 

As we gather information from our partners about their needs, we are preparing to activate an emergency COVID-19 response fund. Please look out for opportunities to lend your support to this effort  over the coming days. We won’t be able to do any of this work without you. 

This pandemic is reshaping the way we think about community and has made one thing strikingly clear: our interdependence. This moment invites us to deepen our relationships, expand our connections, and tend to one another intentionally. Please see the Community Care Guide to COVID-19 on our blog for how to cultivate community care and solidarity in this moment, and beyond.

In critical moments like this, we look to teachings and practices from our grassroots partners for insights. Time and again our partners show us that humanity is resilient, resourceful, and capable of transformation, amidst the greatest of challenges. This pandemic will undoubtedly test the strength of our communities and systems, while claiming an unjust amount of lives and livelihoods.  

This new reality also provides an opening for us to move into the just and equitable future that our collective movements have been building towards. Now is our time for all of us to re-imagine how we can build and strengthen healthy food systems, defend and care for critical ecosystems that support abundant life, and build economic systems that generate wellbeing for all people and our planet, as Thousand Currents partners do daily.  

As the global community comes to terms with our new realities, may we all act in big and small ways to meet the moment: with our vision set on a world that is fundamentally changed for the better; from the grassroots up.  

Wishing you and your loved ones wellbeing and peace of mind during these uncertain times.

Solomé Lemma, Executive Director of Thousand Currents