Also in the first half of 2020, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) launched the Public Call for the Support of Emergency Actions for Vulnerable Populations - Covid-19 (in portuguese, Chamada Pública para Apoio às Ações Emergenciais junto às Populações Vulneráveis - Covid-19). The initiative was conceived with the objective of contributing to the pandemic effects on vulnerable socio-environmental populations mitigation, and counted on the Fiotec support for its financial management. The institution was responsible for transferring the resources to the selected projects.

Projects were chosen that focused on food security for the population; communication; mental health; actions that favored compliance with the measures recommended by the health authorities; and specific assistance to the elderly, people with pre-existing diseases and disabilities, pregnant women, and other risk groups.

One such initiative was the 3C against Covid-19: Communication, Conscience and Charity, developed in the Manaus/AM outskirts by the Community Association of Support for Children and Family of the Amazonas State (ACACF). José Carlos Oliveira, responsible for the association's activities, says that the "goal was to promote, through communication, the awareness about the prevention measures and the fight against Covid-19, allied to the prevention kits distribution and the food security promotion. During two months, basic food baskets were delivered to 103 families in the Ouro Verde and Nossa Vitória communities, in the Amazon capital eastern zone.

Better known as the Roger Cunha Rodrigues Social Center, the ACACF has been working for over 27 years to guarantee the children and adolescents rights and social protection, especially in the Ouro Verde community. Besides specific projects, such as the one to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, the association assists and monitors 50 families in social risk and vulnerability situations.

The resources transferred by Fiotec through the public call were used by ACACF in two lines of action: an awareness campaign of the prevention measures, with informative materials, content by message apps, and health education; and actions to support food security and prevention, with the delivery of food baskets and kits with alcohol gel, mask, and sodium hypochlorite. "The emergency actions assisted approximately 400 people, including low-income families, pregnant women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities," says José Carlos. "We received several orientations about the procedures for signing the term of commitment and the transfer of the obtained resources. It was the first time that the Roger Cunha Social Center participated in a Fiocruz public call, and for us it was very relevant.

Xukuru-kariri women against Coronavirus

In Alagoas, the Indigenous Association of the Wpyra-swpirá Group (AIGWS, acronym in portuguese) allied the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic to the actions it develops for the traditional indigenous culture strengthening, income generation, and the women empowerment against domestic violence. The 168 families from the Mata Cafurna community, contemplated by the association's actions, actively participated in the project Xukuru-kariri Women against Coronavirus, which promoted awareness about the disease and the making of masks to be distributed to the almost 500 people who live there.

"Our project was selected and we received the funds just as the pandemic was approaching our community. We immediately started to make masks, distribute alcohol gel, and also to raise people's awareness", remembers Maria Eliete, one of the association's leaders. She says that part of the masks produced could be sold and their value used to buy food baskets for families in the community. "The resources made possible by the Fiocruz public call helped us a lot, at a time when we were being directly impacted by the pandemic. The accountability [made by Fiotec] was very transparent and, despite the difficulties imposed by the moment, we managed to overcome the problems and readjust both as an institution and as a community", he celebrates.