How is COVID-19 affecting artisan communities in Colombia?
The Colombian government has announced a strict lockdown that has been put into effect since March 19th. A month later…
In Colombia, a very strict quarantine came into effect on March 19th, and it will go until May 11th. We support this decision and have been impressed by how quickly our government has acted to avoid the virus spreading to the most vulnerable regions. However, this came with many difficulties specially for our artisans who had to close their workshops completely and were unable to finish orders they had for the month. This left them in a very complicated situation, needing immediate income to cover basic needs.
The artisan cooperative Zuahaza works with over 45 women, most of them are single mothers and over 50 years old. Many of them are part-time workers who earn hourly and are able to earn enough to cover basic needs for their families. With the workshops closed, 30 of the 45 women were put in a complicated situation having no income for more than a month. This situation has put millions of Colombians who depend heavily on daily income to feed their families, at risk. Colombia is a developing country with very little resources to tackle a health crisis this big. This is why businesses, organizations and individuals are stepping in to help in every way they can collectively.
HOW ARE OUR ARTISAN PARTNERS DOING?
Although this global pandemic has hit them very hard and they have had to shelter at their homes with no other source of income, we know everyone we work with is safe and healthy at this point. That is what we most care about. Martha, one of the youngest members of the team has been coordinating grocery pickups and deliveries for the other families of the cooperative. Most of the members of the cooperative are 50 plus years old, so they are being extremely careful with who goes out to help and who strictly stays at home.
As a social business, we have shifted gears to completely support our artisan partners during this difficult season and step in to help provide for their basic needs. However, we are very small business, with no full time employees yet. We have no way of providing full time salaries and health insurance at this point, but what we can do is donate the proceeds of our sales to the artisan families. Since March 25th, we have been working on an emergency fund based on external donations and proceeds from our sales to buy every artisan family a bag of groceries with non-perishables and essential items. We have successfully done 2 rounds of grocery pick ups for each family. It has lasted them 2 weeks each, feeding their families with a month worth of groceries! And at the second round of groceries, donations exceeded so much we were able to not only get non-perishables but healthy veggies and fruits! We are working hard to get at least another round of donations for the end of the month, when the quarantine is said to start altering and allowing some businesses to go back to work.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER THE QUARANTINE IS OVER ON May 11TH?
We seriously don’t know! Our government has been communicating that the quarantine will not be “completely” over by then. This is a smart decision, given that for over a month they have reduced the percentage of people that have gone out to the streets exponentially, flattening the curve. However, this means that although some people and business will be able to circulate a bit more freely, we are still uncertain if travel within the country will be allowed… This means we don’t really know when we will get to see our artisan partners in the near future!
We are hopeful and positive that the COVID-19 will bring change in a good way into our lives. Although it has been very difficult to cope with change, specially running a small business, we trust in God and know that good things will come out of this situation. Our relationship with our costumers, retailers and artisans has strengthen during this time! So although is difficult to see good coming out of a deadly global virus, we are assured that this is not the end for our team! Just a transition to something new.