FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — Fairfax County has reported that close to 50% of their COVID-19 cases are happening in the Latino community.
Sindy Benavides, CEO of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, believes that part of the disparity can be attributed to a lack of Spanish-language information about the virus.
So which policy resources and documents are available in Spanish and where can you find them?
Benavides says it's on their website.
"We have everything from how do you apply for unemployment benefits, to what is price hiking or price gauging, to what to do if you’re experiencing domestic violence at home, to issues of housing, to what is a food bank?" she said.
"What is a food bank" may seem like a strange thing for LULAC to cover, but Benavides says that the concept of a food bank is something that people in the Hispanic community do not understand.
"When you said it in Spanish: centro de alimentacion or ubicacion de alimentacion, they did not know what that was, so we had to take a step to explain what a food bank was and also provide the link to where they could search by ZIP code," said Benavides.
To make sure that this community, finds out about these resources, LULAC started a social media campaign called #ayudaenespanol which means "help in Spanish."
Celebrities and regular people like you and me can make a sign with the hashtag #ayudaenespanol to let people know about the people in their lives that can benefit from these resources. People then snap a picture holding the sign and share it on our social media with a link back to the LULAC website.
"In order for America to heal, we have to be inclusive," said Benavides. "We have to make sure that all community members know what resources exist so that they can also get tested and have the information that they so much need."
LULAC also wants to make sure that Latinos who didn't qualify for stimulus funding from the government aren't left out. They've created a relief fund which gives Latinos who make less than $24,000 a year access to up to $250 per month.
Qualifying recipients can reapply every month for the money. Benavide says LULAC will continue to give out funding until the money runs out.
RELATED: Virginia coronavirus updates: Single-day case increase hits high with health order set to expire