Friday. Thank God It’s Friday! That was something most of us who had a regular workweek, a 9 -5 job would joyfully say.
COVID-19 changed that for many.
Quarantined Or Isolated For Another Friday
Towards the end of March, like so many of you, my working life changed. My health was not optimal and then one day a coworker suddenly did not come in. Word was he went into self-isolation, his entire family in fact, as they had travelled. At that time, COVID-19 was thought to be mainly spread by those who had travelled within a certain period. These people had to be quarantined to “flatten the curve” of community spread.
Already compromised with not one but many underlying conditions, my doctor sent me home. I have been home since then as, while the virus did not affect me, my health was deteriorating for other reasons.
For at least two months, my grandchildren could not come over for playdates. That was when every feature of WhatsApp and then Zoom became known to me.
Hours turned into a day, days turned into week and weeks into months. Every 24 was just passing of time. No more TGIF
Finding Purpose Even Though
With the re-opening of businesses in Alberta, Canada early June, it has been a mixed bag. Work-life has changed for many workplaces had to physically adjust their furniture to abide by social distancing requirements. However, masks only became mandatory in August.
All over the world, businesses are trying to revamp and re-open. The push is on to get children back into schools. However, the reality of this virus, its potency is making that challenging in many places.
As we have said before, with all the changes that COVID-19 has brought about in the way we live, socialise and even worship, you and I will need to reimagine business. Like schools, more businesses will need to continue operating online. New ventures, must of necessity and until there is a vaccine and a good percentage of the world’s population is immune, will have to offer goods and services online.
We are no different. Daughters of Sheba Foundation became a registered nonprofit organisation because of and amid this pandemic. We saw a need to reach out to the wider community as well as to live our true purpose.
Friday Round-Up
So, what did you do towards reimaging your life this month? Did you research any of the suggestions we gave for starting a business? As we asked, what are you waiting for even to start a side gig?
Our Client: Alissa McLeod
We? What did we do? Well, we kept our promise to support our latest client, Alissa McLeod who wrote a book, “From The Inside Out,” that shares her journey through poverty and rape.
Full disclosure, we are not asking for donations to fund any projects for this client. Rather, we are expending from our resources and are not receiving a cent from the sale of her book.
Promoting her book is one of the commitments we made to her and we have been doing that on Facebook and Instagram. Have you bought your copy as yet? It is a great and inspiring read. Better yet, she has agreed to take off $1.00, dropping the price of a hard copy to $9.00 until September 23, 2020, for our followers. Please support her!
Student Data Grant
Our campaign to raise C$1,000 was launched this month and went into high gear this week, with more visitors to the site and more donations. As of today, we have raised C$372!!!
We are happy about this and look forward to your help to reach our goal. At this point, we are negotiating with data service providers in Jamaica to get a reduced rate for the data. Whether that comes through or not, our intention is to provide data to 10-20 children per month over the three to four months of this initiative.
As COVID-19 resurges in Jamaica (and across some parts of the world) the Government of Jamaica has delayed the re-opening of schools until October 2020. It remains uncertain how many in-class sessions there will be and how many children will be able to access online learning. Our campaign date has been extended according to the Government’s announcement.
Please consider making a donation. You can do that on the campaign page through Fundly or right on our website here through our Stripe partner, If you prefer PayPal, please use the “Donate” button to the right of this page.
Other Activities
Hyacinth
About another one of our clients, Hyacinth. While we have completed Phase One of our support of her, we are in waiting mode to start up the second and final part of our work with her.
We have secured a donation to fund her small chicken-rearing operation, however, the supplier of the chickens are backlogged with orders. So, that project will kick in October 2020 when they expect to have the order for her ready. Yes, there seems to be a shortage of chickens in her area of Jamaica.
Again, full disclosure, we have received approximately C$231 in donations to date, towards this client.
YouTube
Daily posts providing COVID-19 updates are posted to our social media profiles. We now have a growing YouTube channel. Would you mind going over and subscribe? Our plans are to beef up our presentations on that channel by the end of the year.
What’s On Your Friday Round-Up?
Would love to hear how your month has been. Do leave a comment below. We invite you to Like and Follow our Facebook page and Instagram as we regularly post videos and go Live on both.
Enjoy your day, the weekend and what is left of August. Each month, we will do a Round-Up of our activities for the month that is ending. It is one of our ways to remain accountable to our donors and the general public so you know what we are doing and how your donations are being spent. Gloria Rose-Saunders is our Director and Treasurer and as a former banker, she keeps us in check.
Peace and Love,
