Covid 19 Responses: #CaretoAct 2

This is the second post in the Care To Act series. Read the call to action in the first post for more background.

Covid19 has shone a bright light upon the uglier parts of what we accepted as ‘normal’. With the country starting to move through the lockdown stages, the challenge for businesses will be to build back wiser, more conscious and more sustainable. And as people wade through the range of experiences and emotions prompted by this world epidemic, they will be faced with a personal call to action too.

The Care to Act posts are about shining a light in beautiful spaces and bringing ideas to a central place. There is no shortage of ways to act, through raising your own levels of awareness, supporting local businesses and initiatives doing excellent work, or simply through sharing good work being carried out.

If you are looking for ideas, here are a few.

1. Take a look at The Makers Valley Partnership supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses, including their Emergency Food Security Model for Covid19. Here is work that is inspiring, focused, committed, creative and aligned to Well Being Economy principles.Makers Valley is a neighbourhood to the east of the Jozi CBD, stretching from New Doornfontein to Bez Valley. The name Makers Valley comes from the many creative entrepreneurs in the area, the artists, artisans, urban gardeners, carpenters, shoemakers, metal and woodworkers, clothing designers and more. The concept and practice of ‘Changemaking’ is key to many of the activities within the Valley. Progressive entrepreneurs and organisations mobilising locally are recognised for their potential to help propel systemic change within a Wellbeing Economy framework. The evolving community culture builds on versions of the ‘Makers Movement or Revolution’, which encourages creativity, sharing, giving, learning, participation, mutual support and positive change.Around 45 thousand people live in the valley, and many of them are currently out of work and struggling to feed their families. The Makers Valley Partnership has a 3-part programme of relief in motion – partnering with local spaza shops to provide food parcels via a voucher system, running a soup kitchen, and distributing masks and information to limit the spread of the virus. On-the-ground community liaison is essential for this work, as are their links with national advocacy groups such as the Community Action Network (CAN), and the C19 Peoples Coalition, and specialist organisations such as Gateway Health Institute.Web: https://www.makersvalley.org.za/
   Twitter: https://twitter.com/makersvalleyj
2. Support a small, local provider.Order fresh fruit and veg and have it delivered by Farm Fresh Online (http://www.farmfreshonline.co.za/), usually plastic free, but using ziplock bags during lockdown.
3. Translate a book through The African Storybook Initiative, which provides open access to picture storybooks in the languages of Africa.Children need books in a familiar language to practise their reading skills and learn to love reading. This initiative works with local educators and illustrators (including children) to develop, publish and use contextually appropriate storybooks that can be read online or offline, or downloaded and printed. The website has thousands of openly licensed free picture storybooks for children’s literacy, enjoyment and imagination. It also has tools for the translation, adaptation and creation of picture storybooks for children aged two to ten.Two apps are downloadable for free: the African Storybook Reader gives parents and children access to the storybooks even when they are offline; the African Storybook Maker allows people to create picture storybooks offline on their mobile phone or tablet, and publish them on the African Storybook website when they are connected to the internet.African Storybook was initially piloted in in Kenya, South Africa, Lesotho and Uganda, and then extended to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cameroon, DRC, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia. From 2014 to the end of 2018, African Storybook had reached 48,303 educators and 1,145,226 children. Wow!Translate a book using the African Storybook website:
   https://translateastory.org/translate-on-the-african-storybook-website/

   Web: https://www.africanstorybook.org/
   Twitter: https://twitter.com/africastorybook

Tell us about your ideas.
Tweet them to: @gaylinjee #CaretoAct and we may feature them in the next post.

Until then.