Always seeking opportunities to grow her company Jute Artisans Guild Association, Women on Wings’ partner Anjali Singh has shown her creativity and drive to impacting people before. These days orders for jute products have dropped to zero. But the artisans have taken new roles; they are now preparing food for the less fortunate in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Creativity generates income
Covid-19 has brought the world to stand still. Like many countries, India is in total lockdown. Normally, conferences and exhibitions provide large orders to Jute Artisans Guild Association (Jute for Life) for jute products, like folders and bags, which are now reduced to zero. But Anjali Singh has found another way to generate income for her artisans and at the same time support people who are less fortunate by turning her ‘jute artisans’ into ‘food artisans’.
Fighting corona together
Now that the work for Jute for Life has been stalled, Anjali Singh looked for alternatives to support her artisans. Realizing that her artisans could not work for maybe a longer period and seeing so many other people who have nothing at all, Anjali Singh came up with a new initiative. Says Anjali: “Many people from my community were happy to make donations with which we bought dal, flour and more. My Jute for Life women cook and from those donations we are also able to pay them 25 rupees per meal. The food is then distributed to people who absolutely have nothing. This way, my artisans earn approximately 1,000 rupees (± 12 euro) per day, and the poor get a daily meal. Together we have to do whatever we can to get us through these corona times, safe and healthy.”
