Last year, in March of 2020, a grave situation panned out across the world, where a tiny and virulent virus, brought the world to its knees. All businesses, micro, small or large, came to a grinding halt! With no immediate cure, the impact was felt by everyone and even more so by our artisans. They were badly impacted as their orders got canceled and they had a lot of stock to sell.

A group of very wonderful people came together to figure out how to help our artisans at their hour of need. This was a very diverse group, who have been working in the artisanal space. They figured that the most important need of the hour was to provide relief to as many needy craftsmen and their families. They raised funds and reached food items to the homes of all the craftsman in need.

This group of volunteers grew very fast with more and more people joining in. I joined them in September 2020, just after the “first wave” had showed signs of subsiding and there was a degree of normalcy creeping back. 

I just had to be a part of it. 

At this point, CD was focused on rehabilitation. This meant that they were helping the artisans sell their products. To increase their bandwidth, CD had taken on a lot a student interns, enthusiastic but raw.  I joined as a mentor to a bunch of these students, to guide them in the most effective manner to assist the artisans. 

It was an incredible experience as we were doing all of this virtually. We taught the craftsman how to use their smart phones and take good pictures of their products and send them to our student interns, who created beautiful catalogues. These e catalogues were then shared with online portals, to help sell the stock.

My takeaway has been 

• that there are so many good people in this world. 
• Work can be done virtually
• However, physical interaction is also necessary
• Yet, a lot can be achieved through ‘ego’less team work

With the onset of the vicious “second wave” in addition to some regions being impacted by natural calamities, we are back to where we started, helping the artisans survive.

You can contribute too…. Visit www.creativedignity.org now!!