Solidarity initiatives to face the health crisis
The global pandemic caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) invites us to reconnect with the principles of solidarity – if we had strayed away from them. This universal human behavior can be observed here and there, and hopefully settles!
This pandemic, beyond the great and legitimate concerns for the economic impact, invites us to gain or regain consciousness of:
- The decisive role of women and men who are mobilized in projects, associations, or small businesses, to boost the social ties in our territories. With little means and often without fair recognition, they offer health and educational services, local services, or even cultural and social mediations, all essential to the quality of life.
- The social bond between agriculture and food, and the need to reignite it.
The climate and digital transitions were already incentivizing us to do so!
The current health situation allows us to understand the urgency and the necessity of quickly changing development paradigm. It also gives a concrete meaning to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and to the stakes of economic, social and territorial cohesion which structure, without great operational conviction, the budget and the community policies.
Rural and peri-urban territories are committed to excellence in these areas, thanks to their strong capacity for resilience.
R.E.D. has thus decided, with its partners in the European Countryside Movement, to contribute to the current solidarity impulses by relaying, on our website and via our contacts, the solidarity initiatives and calls of all these actors of the rural territories who are mobilized today and will remain so tomorrow.
R.E.D.‘s project managers and elected officials, but also our partner organizations, pledge their commitment!