Campaign Update—October 8, 2020—We have passed $30,000 in donations to this campaign through this online platform and offline checks. This has triggered a $10,000 matching grant put together by several supporters. That means that the next $10,000 donated to this campaign will be matched! Once we hit $32,000 on this platform we will have raised the full $50K. Please donate now so your contribution will be matched!

Since March, Catalytic Communities has focused exclusively on supporting favela organizers at the frontlines of Covid-19 prevention and mitigation. We have ramped up our community reporting efforts on RioOnWatch to offer daily coverage as these resistance efforts unfold. We have held over 150 live community Zoom meetings hosting some 2000 people including regular special support meetings with over 300 community organizers from over 75 favelas and 560 technical allies and volunteers who are working together to respond to the pandemic and develop strategies for social change in these trying times.

We have provided food stuffs to those on the frontlines and distributed a hygienization alternative to gel alcohol in partnership with Engineers Without Borders. We are raising funds for waste pickers who conduct 90% of Brazil's recycling yet are among the hardest hit by this pandemic. We are part of a group advocating to the federal government for civil society-monitoring of water utilities. We are connecting favela organizers with global media outlets who are covering their stories, and speaking virtually on international panels, from the UN to Land Portal and the Global Summit, sharing real-time updates from Rio. And we are organizing live teach-ins online where up to 100 organizers weekly learn from those who've been successful in their resistance efforts.

Finally, we have developed and launched the Covid-19 In Favelas Unified Dashboard, which has quickly become a primary reference on Covid-19 in Rio's favelas. Once the pandemic hit Rio, CatComm partnered with Esri to realize the dashboard, available at www.favela.info. The Unified Dashboard works to identify and develop data sources on probable and confirmed cases through a network of community sources, dozens of favela-based rapporteurs across the city, government-published dashboards, and news clippings. It also allows for residents to report their symptoms directly using a symptom-checking algorithm.

Its primary goal is to support favela-based prevention efforts in informing their own residents and pressuring for needed public policies, while also providing a more accurate view of the impact of the pandemic on favelas. Each week new sources of data are identified among community partners, and the database is further strengthened. Read all about the dashboard and its partners, and check out media coverage, here.

Continuing with all of this vital work, however, depends on you taking action now. Please take a moment to help Catalytic Communities fight coronavirus in Rio's favelas through the Covid-19 in Favelas Unified Dashboard and other critical programs by supporting our campaign below.

Though much of our promised funding for the year was called off at the beginning of the pandemic due to economic impacts on our donor institutions, we have been able to continue responding to favelas' urgent needs since March thanks to those who have contributed in this campaign so far.

But to keep it up we must reach our full $50,000 goal. Please take a moment today to set up a one-time or recurring donation, of any amount, and to ask friends to do the same.

We are counting on supporters like you.

—CatComm Team and Rio de Janeiro community partners

Slideshow photos made available by Unified Dashboard community partners. US donations are 100% tax-deductible.