GENEROSITY CONNECTS US 

Support artisanal miners and their families in Colombia and Peru during COVID-19

Crowdfunding campaign

Artisanal miners do so informally, and are among the poorest populations in the world. This situation has been intensified by the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted many miners families, especially those with female heads of households or with children and elderly people at home. These families have had to stop their mining activities and many of them have not received any income for the last two months.

 

Click on the video to hear the beautiful words of Maria Fernanda

The Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) has analyzed the needs of mining groups we work with and we are choosing to launch a crowdfunding campaign to support 142 artisanal miners families that are in the most dire situations in Peru and Colombia.

Without any income and facing increase in local food prices, these artisanal miners struggle to meet the most basic needs of their families.We have therefore chosen to focus our actions on meal assistance: providing a complete food basket for each identified family for a month.

Any assistance you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Now more than ever, artisanal miners’ families need your support to stay strong and remain hopeful during this crisis. 

 

We firmly believe that GENEROSITY CONNECTS US.

Thank you for helping us support these families and for sharing this campaign!

Please read on and learn more about how ARM will use the collected funds.

 

 >> Who will benefit from this campaign?

Funds raised will be primarily used to buy food for the families that were identified during a preliminary territorial needs analysis lead by our local teams in 5 municipalities in Colombia and Peru. This analysis has helped us identify:

40 families in Puno, Peru

25 families in Boyaca, Colombia

14 families in El Bagre, Colombia

24 families in Zaragoza, Colombia

9 families in San Martin de Loba and Barranco de Loba, Colombia

30 families in Suarez, Colombia

We know that we cannot be everywhere, so we decided to target the families that are the most at risk. Women are the heads of households in most of these families and depend solely on income from their mining activities to cover their basic needs as well their children’s. They are strong, resilient women who perform their roles as miners with love and pride.

 

>> How did we decide the amount to be collected?

Groceries for a month for a 4-person family cost on average 77 euros, plus delivery, financial and other nominal costs. In this campaign, we are committed to support 142 families which means that we need to raise a total of 12,000 euros as soon as possible.

 

>> What will happen if we raise more funds?

The additional funds will help us to support more families and eventually extend the duration of our support to these families.

 

>> What will happen if the needs of the identified families change?

The needs of these families may change in the coming weeks, thus we reserve the right to alter our assistance according to the changing situation on the ground. In such a case the funds could be used to provide for other urgent needs of these families such as health care, first aid kits or sanitary supplies.

 

A final report of the allocation of the funds will be sent to all donors.

 

>> Regarding artisanal miners, you might like to know:

The World Bank has conservatively estimated that more than 41 million people work in the artisanal and small-scale mining sector worldwide, of which at least 30% are women. The proportion of women doing secondary activities has grown exponentially in recent years. Over 150 million people in 80 countries are estimated to be dependent on artisanal and small-scale gold mining sector alone.

 

Most miners working directly and indirectly in artisanal mining do so informally, and are being among the poorest populations in the world.

                                                                      
Participatory Poem – “Being a female miner is…”

Female miners told us what it is like for them to be able to work. Putting all their words together, we created this poem that we hope you like and will share with others. 

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