d E n x ppaannddin A r d E n x a A t r S a t ingg H h S t h r t o H o r o olliisst N N e hhe tiicc S T T Suup g g n i pppo n t i t t orrt SSeet t
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR We all know too well that no one is untouched by the Covid-19 Pandemic. One year into it, we can say that as it changed the world it has also reshaped the way we think and work in UAF Asia & Pacific. As we reached out to our network of women and non-binary human rights defenders and made available our COVID Crisis Grants, we came to a new understanding of how their multiple vulnerabilities intersected with one another; how defenders saw their way forward towards better resilience for themselves, their families and communities; and, consequently for us, how crucial it was that we expanded our notion of holistic support. We are grateful to the UAF A&P Team for the 44 (and counting) COVID Crisis Grants that have been disbursed so far. Interestingly, this unexpected and unprecedented demand for the team to step up also broke down the neatly-set divides along programmatic lines in our day-to-day work and created refreshing new energy for cross-programme collaboration. Alongside managing the COVID Crisis Grants, we continued to ensure that our Rapid Response Grants (RRGs) were accessed by defenders under threat. In this past year, the reach of our RRGs was expanded to 21 countries across Asia and the Pacific, including where the most severe repression was (and continues to be) happening.
