Atlantic Institute Annual Review (2020-21)

Constance Mogale, Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity, used a Solidarity Grant to upscale a honey-making project in Goedgevonden, South Africa. It enabled the community to sell the honey and have a food supply for themselves. Credit. Sydelle Willow Smith, Atlantic Fellow.

In Solidarity: Solidarity Grants

For most of 2020 and 2021, the world has been in the grip of COVID-19. In solidarity with the Fellows, the Institute offered Fellows the chance to apply for short-term, rapid-response Solidarity Grants. Between April and August 2020, a total of 74 Fellows from all seven programs received 54 Solidarity Grants from the Institute to develop their own local projects to alleviate the worst impacts of COVID-19.

The first round of grants from the Institute totaled £267,383, with £64,452 matched funding from the Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity in Southeast Asia. The grants ranged from £500 to £5,000 and were given to Fellows in 20 countries to provide urgently needed food, personal protective equipment and information, and funding for research or projects that could help maintain forms of health care and education despite the pandemic.

A second round of Solidarity Grants was opened in May 2021, in recognition of the continuing and far-reaching impacts of COVID-19. This round was capped at the same level as in 2020, and was offered to Fellows who were making new applications and those requiring further funding for existing projects.

As Fellows connect and collaborate through the global network, they think and learn together, incubating and implementing strategies for greater impact. Accelerated by the Atlantic Institute and community support, they become collective agents of change.

CROSS-PROGRAM PROJECTS FUNDED WITH SOLIDARITY GRANTS IN 2020

● Exploring loneliness, social isolation and the care burden of care partnersand families of people with dementia or neurodegenerative disordersin Arabic-, French- and Bengali-speaking countries (involving AtlanticFellows for Equity in Brain Health and an Atlantic Fellow for Social andEconomic Equity).

● Empowering disenfranchised communities through stories of advocacy(involving Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity U.S. + Global and an Atlantic Fellow for Social Equity).

● Providing people with disabilities opportunities to represent their narratives through the Disability Justice Narratives (involving an Atlantic Fellow for Social and Economic Equity and an Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity U.S. + Global).

Maira Okada de Oliviera, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health, led a project to examine the feasibility of remote cognitive assessments of hospital patients during COVID-19. The project carried out in São Paulo also involved Atlantic Fellow, Barbara Costa Beber. Photo credit: Johnny Miller, Atlantic Fellow.

Somporn Pengkam and Ratawit Ouaprachanon, Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity in Southeast Asia, improved food security and health resilience for a Bang Kloi Karen Indigenous community. Photo credit: Luke Duggleby.

HOW FELLOWS HELPED THEIR COMMUNITIES

217,340 people were reached with videos/ animations relating to COVID-19.

32,698 people reached with sexual reproductive health information.

85,214 views of educational videos.

2,100 participants took part in COVID-19 prevention sessions.

1,893 people watched/listened to sexual reproductive health information.

1,644 children at risk of missing education received it.

100 refugees took part in theater sessions to give traumainformed care support.

61 households taught how to grow food through hydroponics.

40 households received safe water through new water tanks.

27,655 face masks and face shields were distributed.

12,950 households received food and other supplies.

2,202 responses to surveys about health or inequalities experienced.

319 adults trained in different of skills.

170 sessions given to boost brain health and tackle loneliness.

136 community food gardens were created.

30 people took part in online cognitive testing to be assessed for dementia.

25 beehives set up to provide food and income.

10 people participated in arts and health practice for living with dementia and family caregivers.