Supporting Our Communities Through COVID-19
As you have likely heard in the news, many in India have fallen ill without access to testing or proper medical care. Millions have lost their jobs, been displaced, lack the ability to quarantine, and struggle to find food and basic necessities. India has so many in challenging situations, and our hearts break daily for these communities.
However, our artisans (pictured here) are safe, healthy and fairly protected from these things. It is sobering to be working in vulnerable communities, and yet comforting to know that our work is able to help so many.
Like many of you, we’ve significantly shifted our focus. We are now spending most of our time supporting the fellows in our programs during this widespread time of need. Our goal is to ensure that 100% of their businesses survive this crisis, so that they can continue to have significant impact in their communities.
Here are a few of the ways we're supporting our partners:
We conducted detailed surveys with all of our fellows in India and Thailand over the last few weeks to determine each partner’s specific needs each month.
We have been raising relief funds for two weeks, and with your generous help, we will provide financial relief to our partners monthly. Our goal is to obtain wage and food security for 100% of our fellows’ employees and their families during this time of lost business income.
JoyCorps’ coaches are regularly in touch with our fellows through one-on-one chats, talking them through business decisions and planning. They are all working hard to develop creative, innovative solutions to current challenges.
All of our coaches are choosing to stay in-country and available to the communities we serve via video and phone calls.
Our team member Sean is working on an exhaustive market research project to understand the necessary pivots for small businesses during a potential recession. Sean will share more detail about his findings with you later in April.
We are working with multiple lawyers and accountants to understand each country’s options for government assistance.
We spend time each morning in prayer for our fellows and their artisan communities.
Finally, we have begun group chats so that our artisan groups can stay deeply connected as a community, sharing inspirational and joyful content with one another. I personally have enjoyed a WhatsApp group of my JOYN artisans, where we’ve been doing daily contests. Some of the contests include: sing us your favorite song, show us what you made for breakfast, draw something and share it, and send a family selfie. Community means so much during this time.
Our fellows have repeatedly expressed their gratitude for the support of the JoyCorps community. Many of their businesses would struggle to survive without your partnership. We are thankful to you all for your donations, messages checking in with us, support, encouragement, and prayers during this unprecedented season.
If you'd like to help:
Donate to our Relief Fund. 100% of donations will be used to support our partners during the coming months.
Finally, if you’d like to reach out to our entrepreneurs or the artisan communities we support, don’t hesitate to contact us or even write a letter and send us a picture of it. We’ll make sure it gets to each person in our community. We would all LOVE to hear from you.