Individual wellbeing is the cause and consequence of collective welfare, due to four principles that influence the individual and the collective sphere: change, connection, continuity and complementarity. One without the other is not sustainable. Aid must be designed and delivered with the ambition of holistic support that considers not only each dimension but contributes to the optimisation of their mutual interplay, the ultimate ambition being to lift individuals everywhere to fulfill their potential.
The pandemic has pulled back the veil of a systemic social paradox that has been lingering for too long. A few have (too) much, while many survive on a bare minimum.
The COVID-19 conundrum puts everyone at risk of infection, yet the outcomes of that risk, and even the level of exposure to it, are heavily influenced by a person’s socio-economic status. Inequity has been growing under the radar. The pandemic has put it, and us, on the spot.
2020 showed that the modus operandi of the past is inadequate. COVID-19 confronts us with the need for something different, because doing more of the same yields more of the same.
Today’s challenge is to neither pick up the shards and patch them together into something makeshift, nor come up with more of the same that failed before. Can we create something new?
If nothing else, the virus may push us out of our mental comfort zone; snap us out of the lukewarm slumber that made us believe that we are different, better, worthier and—subliminally spoken—less at risk. Being aware of our common foundation, we can shape our lives rather than be puppets pushed under by the torrential current of a crisis.
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