EMERGENCY Supports Migrants and Homeless During COVID-19 Outbreak

Our project to manage the coronavirus emergency at shelters, in collaboration with Milan’s municipal government.

EMERGENCY, in collaboration with Milan’s municipal government, has begun a project to help the most vulnerable people in society, who run a higher risk of catching the coronavirus and suffering its effects.

It involves monitoring in shelters for homeless people and unaccompanied migrant children within the SIPROIMI (formerly SPRAR) system. Over the next few hours, we will work to reach more places on top of the 34 shelters we have covered so far, including intermediary shelters and certain gypsy camps pointed out to us by Milan’s municipal government.

The work is managed by two teams from EMERGENCY, each made up of a nurse, a logistician, and a doctor in case of need. The point is to monitor the situation at the centres, see how the spaces are run when it comes to hygiene, safe distances and cleaning, and make sure the government’s instructions are being followed. After doing these checks, EMERGENCY points out any changes that need to be made to keep staff and patients healthy. We also train staff at the facilities on protocols and tutorials to follow to help them better manage the emergency.

After our initial inspections, we do follow-up visits at the weakest facilities, some of which have seen their patients test positive for coronavirus in the last few days.

As of tomorrow, EMERGENCY will give basic training to Cooperativa Dar Casa, so it can let homeless people go into quarantine in its building on Via Carbonia, in the Quarto Oggiaro neighbourhood.

“At this very difficult time, we need to be concerned about protecting everyone’s health, and that includes the most vulnerable people in society, the people who risk being left behind. That’s the principle our work has always rested on and always will – providing treatment for everyone, with no exceptions, in safety. Homeless people, migrants living in shelters, seasonal workers living in shacks. At the moment we are doing our best to help the many people at risk from two things – being ill and being abandoned,” says Rossella Miccio, President of EMERGENCY.