 Global Integration UpdatesCommon Ground for the Common Good Be the people we need--Build the world we need
Special News--April 2020
Confronting COVID-19
Be smart--Be safe--Be kind
Updates and information--Coping and mental health
We are at war with a virus – and not winning it. It took the world three months to reach 100,000 confirmed cases of infection. The next 100,000 happened in just 12 days. The third took four days. The fourth, just one and a half. This is exponential growth and only the tip of the iceberg. This war needs a war-time plan to fight it. Solidarity is essential....Allow me to highlight three critical areas for concerted G-20 action...UN Secretary-General António Guterres, G-20 Virtual Summit, 26 March 2020
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In this Update we share some of the growing number of resources in the world community's battle to confront the corona virus. The resources provide you with information and updates as well as suggestions for coping and maintaining mental health, etc. Two of the main sources for resources that we feature are the World Health Organization and the United Nations.
Underlying, overarching, and intermingled with all of these resources is this simple yet crucial message from the United Nations: "Be smart. Be safe. Be kind." To this message we intermingle our own, as people of faith: "Don't fear. Trust God. Do good."
Warm greetings (from France and USA),
Kelly and Michèle
 
Featured Resources
Confronting COVID-19Be smart--Be safe--Be kind
Updates and information--Coping and mental health
WHO Situation Dashboard, 26 March 2020, 1800 CET
(expand the image for easier viewing and click on the link for updates)
The pandemic continues to take a massive toll not just on health, but on so many parts of life….We have overcome many pandemics and crises before. We will overcome this one too. The question is how large a price we will pay. Already we have lost more than 16,000 lives. We know we will lose more – how many more will be determined by the decisions we make and the actions we take now. To slow the spread of COVID-19, many countries have introduced unprecedented measures, at significant social and economic cost – closing schools and businesses, cancelling sporting events and asking people to stay home and stay safe….The point of these actions is to enable the more precise and targeted measures that are needed to stop transmission and save lives....There are six key actions that we recommend…WHO Director-General Dr Tedros, Media Briefing, 25 March 2020
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Two Main Sources of Information
Be smart--Be safe--Be kind
More Resources
Don't fear. Trust God. Do good.
Perspective from C.S Lewis
The Normalcy of the Novelty
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
Member Care Associates Inc. (MCA) is a non-profit, Christian organization working internationally from Geneva and the USA. MCA's involvement in Global Integration focuses on the wellbeing and effectiveness of personnel and their organizations in the mission, humanitarian, and development sectors as well as global mental health, all with a view towards supporting sustainable development for all people and the planet. Our services include consultation, training, research, developing resources, and publications.
Global Integration (GI) is a framework for actively and responsibly engaging in our world--locally to globally. It emphasizes connecting relationally and contributing relevantly on behalf of human wellbeing and the issues facing humanity, in light of our integrity, commitments, and core values (e.g., ethical, humanitarian, human rights, faith-based). GI encourages a variety of people to be at the “global tables” and in the "global trenches"--and everything in-between--in order to help research, shape, and monitor agendas, policies, and action for all people and the planet. It intentionally links building the world we need with being the people we need.
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