“When Covid-19 arrived, our hospitals were just too weak and ill prepared to cope. Seven years of war in Yemen destroyed half of our health infrastructure and many doctors haven’t received salaries for four or five years.

Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, people here have been panicking. They haven’t known where to go or how to get help. 

The future looks very bad, with Covid, or without Covid. But from what we've seen in Yemen, the number of hungry people will climb higher and higher – that is for sure."

The threat of winter looms in Syria where people are already dying from conflict and Covid, says aid worker Shahinaz Muamar, from a local partner of a DEC charity.

“We have seen many tough things in Syria over this last year, but the worst thing was Covid-19. A lot of hospitals are closed and because there are no beds, no oxygen, no place for people to be treated, people died outside or at home without any medical care. 

It’s coming to winter now, and cold and harsh weather is arriving. People need medical care, food and they desperately need warm clothes, blankets, and tarpaulins to protect their children from the rain and cold."

People are left with the psychological trauma of losing loved ones and are struggling to earn a living, writes Susmita Guha, Senior Manager West Bengal, Save the Children India.

"We can see that Covid has changed many things – many small industries have shut down and thousands of people have lost their livelihoods. Covid goes on, but the biggest challenge now is for people to earn money – they’re struggling with hunger.  

It breaks my heart to see how the children from marginalised communities are suffering - with their education, their health, nutrition, and their mental wellbeing. I feel all of us who live in a better situation should offer a hand towards these children who are suffering with everything, but especially with hunger. "

The pandemic is far from over in the DRC, but our work is saving and changing lives, writes Hebdavi Muhindo, Tearfund Country Director in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  

"I wish we were celebrating that the pandemic is over now but, unfortunately, it's far from over. It has gone on for so long, people are tired and their resilience has been stretched and stretched and stretched.

It’s been heart-breaking seeing people face impossible choices. Most people here rely on daily wages to survive, which means they have a tough choice to make: ‘Do I go out and risk it? I might die, I might catch the virus. But if I don’t go out, my children will almost certainly die of hunger.’   

I wake up in the morning, and sometimes it's frustrating, sometimes it hurts, but then I'm encouraged by one thing: I've seen that the work that we're doing is saving lives."