
Your pandemic stories
We asked you how COVID-19 is affecting your lives. This is what you have told us. #HumansofCovid19
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Published in:openJustice: InvestigationSedated and abandoned: the struggle to care for my disabled daughter during lockdown
From one week to the next Lauryn, 17, went from having a full package of support for her severe learning difficulties to having nothing. Instead she was put on diazepam
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Published in:openJustice: OpinionI gave birth during coronavirus as an asylum seeker
The doctors were good to me but my circumstances caused problems during the birth and beyond. I came to the UK for safety but I feel far from safe.
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Published in:50.50The people locked down and locked out in the cold during the pandemic
Millions are unable to survive the pandemic or the rules to contain it. Their stories make a compelling case for a universal basic income grant. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50The pandemic is yet another test for Colombian human rights defenders
The extrajudicial killing of my son burst the bubble I was living in. This pandemic is yet another test of our endurance and how big our hearts are to help those in need. #HumansofCOVID9 Español
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Published in:50.50Indian farmers are staring at suicide as Modi government looks the other way
Lockdown meant I could not transport my grapes to buyers. I now have huge debt and no way to pay. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50The Chinese government must let us cry for our dead
My social media posts have been censored many times, especially when I said that “we don’t have the right to cry when we wish to" - but I plan to keep speaking out #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50The sex work network we have been building is saving us during COVID-19
I’m a sex worker in Argentina. I can’t work and I have no support from the government, but our grassroots network is helping us survive. #HumansofCOVID19 Español
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Published in:50.50With little food or money, we tried to get home after India’s lockdown
I knew I had to get my pregnant wife back to our village, but the journey was over 1,000 kilometres and we had to walk some of the way in 45°C heat. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50While the world is busy with the virus, Israel is annexing the West Bank
Foreign volunteers are not allowed into Palestine and we have few donations, so it is very difficult to run my education charity. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50Now, I have to take whatever clients offer for sex
I’m a sex worker in South Africa. Sex usually costs 70 Rand (about $5), but now I have to accept almost half that, just to have food. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:openDemocracyUK“The government gives me £35 a week to buy food… During the lockdown, my kids do not receive free school meals”
As a refugee and single mother, lockdown in the UK is hard. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50I used to support my family, but now I can't even afford to buy bread
I’m an informal market trader in South Africa and the breadwinner in our family of four. But now rely on handouts to feed my family. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50A homebirth seemed like the only option
I have just given birth to my second child – but at home instead of in hospital. There wasn’t a hair on my head that considered going to a hospital during this pandemic. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50I'm a new wife in a foreign country, unable to go out and make friends
I was sent to Iran to be married. My family in Afghanistan ask me how Iranians treat me. How would I know? I’ve never been outside our apartment. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:openDemocracyUK: Opinion"There's rules that apply to them, and there's rules that apply to you"
The Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community in the UK has been hit hard by the crisis. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50If I sit back and do nothing, my family won’t survive
I invested all my savings in a tourist shop and café that was due to open in April. Now I deliver desserts to feed my family. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50I’m more afraid of Albania’s police than the virus
I collect trash to survive but the curfew makes it hard to go out. They demolished our market, and I’m afraid my house is next. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50Stuck in a foreign land with no passport or work
I support family in Ethiopia, have to pay my Lebanese sponsor who keeps my passport - and my cleaning work has stopped with lockdown. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:openDemocracyUK: OpinionWe must catch everyone in the coronavirus safety net
I am lucky, but millions are not. Our government must guarantee a liveable income for everyone – now. It will save lives.
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Published in:50.50I am lonely and miss talks with neighbours
How can I be afraid of the pandemic? I’m living without any means and I’m still alive! I don’t even die. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50We are cheap labour to fight COVID-19
I was put on the frontline against the coronavirus. I’m a medical resident. We have no tests, protection or ventilators. And I think I’m infected. #HumansofCOVID19 Español
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Published in:50.50Family offers no solace when it's the source of pain
How can LGBTIQ people find solace in family or religion when these are the sources of our pain? #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:50.50Isolated in a toxic relationship
I am in lockdown with my husband who drinks and shouts and breaks things. We live on social grants. My kids are trying to do homework on my phone. #HumansofCOVID19
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Published in:openDemocracyUKPandemic poverty: "I can't afford to live on £94 a week"
Four women in the UK explain how the British government's coronavirus support scheme has let them slip through the safety net. #HumansofCOVID19