DOING BUSINESS DURING THE CORONA ERA

Am delighted to be part of this wonderful organization. I have come to learn a lot from what other people are doing out there. Am alive to the fact that this epidemic has brought many challenges to many people in our country more so for victims of Gender Based Violence (GBV). As a nation we have so far lost three lives as a result of GBV related to covid-19. The number of divorce cases related to covid 19 is on the rise and am  inundated with phone calls of GBV related sexual violence happening in peoples homes.     Some of the people that am helping  have been evicted from their rented homes as they are failing to pay rentals since the selling of food stuffs which  was their source of income has been stopped in fear of spreading the disease. Instead of just sitting at home doing nothing, I decided to look at this epidemic as a stepping stone to help the vulnerable in our society by coming up with a project that will address their needs now that can be scaled up in future to avoid over dependence on donor funding. I have two sawing machines which I am using to train some women making  masks, aprons and face shields. To empower them I have engaged them into making face masks, face shields and aprons as been encouraged by Zambian government as these are in short supply in our country. The government has decreed that all people have to wear face masks whenever in public. So there is this niche market which I am utilizing to empower our women. Our products are  sold at an affordable price to enable our members have a decent income to support their families. We intend to produce in the first four months over 500,000 masks, 1,000 shields and 500 aprons which will contribute to the eradication of the disease as these are in short supply in our country. However, we are overwhelmed by the demand as we are only using two machines. We would appreciate if out there someone can come to our aid and donate some more equipment which we can use to train more women as this industry is very much active in our country. My aim is to train 200 women in tailoring and designing.