The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge the world physically, emotionally, and economically. It has challenged the very thing that Lime believes makes urban life a beautiful life—thriving communities of people together. While physical distancing is imperative to stop the spread of this virus, fostering a sense of connection in cities around the world has never been more important.

How To Get Involved

There are a number of ways people can continue to stay connected in support of each other, whether through financial contribution or the gift of time. Here are just a few organizations that are working tirelessly to ensure the health and safety of communities around the world and need support.

• • Volunteer online with nonprofit organizations around the world that are being impacted by the pandemic and need support in a multitude of ways. Check out online volunteerism platforms to virtually volunteer for even an hour a week including Translators Without Borders if you are bilingual, and UN Volunteers.

• • Creative? Lend your skills to a UN art initiative to get the word out about personal hygiene, physical distancing, and more. Find more details here.

• • Look for ways to help seniors: Check in with neighborhood groups online, and reach out to offer a hand for anyone who may need some extra help with a trip to a pharmacy or grocery store. To donate, check out Latet, an Israeli organization that supports isolated seniors who lack accessibility to food, and in the U.S., Meals on Wheels, delivers nutritious meals to the country’s most vulnerable seniors.

• • Help at-risk neighbors: mandated quarantine disproportionately impacts those who face domestic violence. If in France, contribute to Fondation des Femmes, an organization leading the work to protect survivors of gender-based violence and/or the financially vulnerable.

• • Support your favorite local restaurant with a takeout order or gift card. Go further by contributing to the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation, directly supporting organizations in the States leading on-the-ground efforts in the restaurant community through zero-interest loans to businesses to maintain payroll during closure and reopen once the crisis has passed.

• • Donate to local food banks or support organizations that can. In Germany, Tafel collects quality food that would otherwise be thrown away and donates it to socially and economically disadvantaged people. Feeding America, the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States, has launched the COVID-19 Response Fund, a national food- and fund-raising effort to support people facing hunger and the food banks who help them.

• • Find out how to show support in your neighborhood: In the U.S., participate in organized efforts, such as Team Rubicon's #NeighborsHelpingNeighbors initiative. It leverages the “skills and experiences of military veterans and first responders to meet the needs of communities through safe individual acts of service.”

Consider donating financially to these great organizations that are providing resources and relief at the global level:

• • The COVID-19 Response Fund supports the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Foundation to help ensure all countries are prepared. Donations support the WHO’s work to track and understand the virus, get frontline workers the resources they need, and accelerate efforts to develop vaccines.

• • The Red Cross or Red Crescent society has mobilized to the front lines in areas that need relief support. The Red Cross in Italy has launched "the time for kindness," which asks volunteers to deliver groceries and medicine to those in need. Spain launched #CruzRojaResponde aiming to assist 1.35 million vulnerable people. Through Germany’s Corona Emergency Relief Fund, volunteers are deployed to help the elderly and needy with services like psycho-social care and food delivery. Look for the Red Cross helpers in each country to offer support.

The impact of COVID-19 varies in every community, but our collective response should be the same: maintain physical distance, but don’t be distant.