Hispanics in Philanthropy has announced grants totaling $6 million in support of COVID-19 relief efforts in the United States, Mexico, and Central and South America.
Awarded through HIP’s Essential Fund, Rapid Response Migration Fund, Civic Participation Fund, Farmworker Relief Fund, PowerUp Fund, and the COVID-19 Emergency Fund Against Gender Violence, the grants will support small businesses and communities impacted by the coronavirus and the ensuing economic downturn. A hundred and sixteen Latinx-serving organizations in the U.S., fifty-four in Mexico, eleven in Central America, and eight in South America received grants ranging from $5,000 to $50,000.
The HIP funds are supported in part by Blue Meridian Partners, the California Endowment, Casey Family Programs, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Oak, Marguerite Casey, Julian Grace, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, Charles Stewart Mott, David & Lucile Packard, Open Society, Tinker, and Nathan Cummings foundations.
On average, Latinx people in the United States are three times as likely to be infected by COVID-19 than their white neighbors, and nearly twice as likely to die, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disproportionately represented among essential service-based jobs including home health aides, food delivery workers, and agricultural laborers, 84 percent of Latinx workers cannot work from home; they also are twice as likely as white Americans to be uninsured.
“Our responsibility at this moment is to support families, workers, women, essentially the most vulnerable within our communities and the organizations and leaders on the ground who through absolute resilience and courage have worked tirelessly to provide support to Latinos who are putting themselves at risk every day,” said Hispanics in Philanthropy president and CEO Ana Marie Argilagos. “The social safety net has done little to address the exacerbated need of Latino essential workers on the frontlines. Our trusted partners have shown incredible agility to deploy direct financial assistance quickly and help build a system of support for our community.”
Source: PND
