Despite being a fatal pandemic and a source of sorrow to many people across the globe, Covid-19 availed, and still avails many organizations the opportunity to demonstrate and fulfill their aims, objectives and goals. One of such organizations is BlessWorld Foundation, whose vision and mission statement is ‘Affecting the world through Health”. Like many non-profit organization, BlessWorld Foundation proactively seeks for funds, manpower and ways to serve the community in different capacities.The overall goal is to promote health by inspiring positive behavior change and empowering people. Therefore, it is safe to say that the pandemic presents a pedestal to express our core values which includes service, compassion, commitment, respect, innovation and ethics. This further buttresses the point that the need for charity is borne out of, problems, diseases and the shortcomings of an imperfectly uncertain world.

Non-profit organizations rely essentially on volunteers and donations to fund their cause- therefore, it remains a constant challenge to prompt and inspire people to support and come through either in cash or kind. Many companies suffered some form of setback due to COVID 19 and this led to laying-off staff, closing a few offices or outlets and even shutting down completely for some. However, non-profit organizations could not afford to lay-off staff or shut down as the purpose of their existence lies completely in periods when service is needed and help is lacking. At such, BlessWorld foundation continues to meet with her mandate in the following ways:

Employment provision

The increase in need of service has created a surge in the need of workers. As a consequence, existing workers and new workers are constantly needed to meet the growing needs of the community and for services to be provided accordingly. BlessWorld foundation meets this demand by recruiting new staff and training existing ones whenever necessary.

Poverty alleviation

Programs such as Cradle2Fame remain a major form of poverty alleviation and community development. Here, youths are given the opportunity to showcase their talents for a price- this healthy competition inspires purpose and makes dreams come true. Awards such as millions of cash prices and other gifts are up for grabs- more so; participants experience a journey of self-discovery and positive mental attitude. In addition, raffle draw tickets which provides an opportunity for any random person to luckily and instantly double their cash is a great source of help to many.

Capacity building

Capacity building is a by-product of employment provision and poverty alleviation. It includes the ways that we as an organization collect, use, improve and retain information, tools and skills required for competent service provision. By hiring highly qualified staff and updating their skills through training, BlessWorld foundation equips herself for competence and excellence in service provision.  Furthermore, our innovative Cradle2fame program remains an excellent form of empowerment and capacity building to the youth and community respectively. This is especially necessary in these difficult times of COVID 19 pandemic.

COVID 19 is a disease caused by the Novel Coronavirus- SARS-CoV-2. The disease which caused a pandemic began late 2019 in Wuhan China and was named by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Many sectors of the economy have been ravaged by the COVID 19 pandemic including education, transportation and in fact, all social activities. Categorically, the ban placed on movement and consequently, on every sector, has stifled so many businesses. 

The pandemic has also spurred mass layoffs across countries and many industries have taken a significant hit. A lot of companies announced the downsizing of their work force. For example, Qantas airways, a major airline in Australia laid off two-third of its workers. The CEO of Qantas airways, Alan Joyce, defended this layoff saying that the Coronavirus is the worst crisis to ever hit the aviation industry. On April 28, online travel company, TripAdvisor announced it would lay off more than 900 of its employees amounting to a quarter of its workforce. On March 19, Air Canada announced its readiness to layoff 50% of its flight crew.The list is endless. 

On the flip side, healthcare and technology witnessed a significant boost in service provision. In fact, hospitals were saturated and people were willing to pay anything to get help. Also, technology and social networks, which replaced physical contact, became the go-to as people found ways to adapt to the new reality. Tele-health, Zoom app, Tik Tok, and Social media challenges became most popular during this pandemic.

Given the ease of spread as with similar flu viruses, COVID 19 affected over 180 countries with the United States reaching 5 million cases this August, and replacing China as the country with the highest number of cases. Other countries hardly hit and badly affected by the virus include Brazil (3.5 million cases), India (3 million cases), Russia (957,000 cases), Spain (368,000), United Kingdom (386,000 cases) and Italy (238,000 cases). On the other hand, some countries such as New Zealand (1,674 cases), Slovenia (2,651 cases), Finland (7,920 cases), Norway (10,318 cases), Denmark (16,000) and South Korea (17,000 cases) showed excellent emergency preparedness by quickly keeping the deadly virus under control. These countries successfully suppressed the transmission of the virus by implementing policies that limited public movement and social contact as well as promoting behaviors that hindered the viral spread.

 The prospects of recovery from the impacts of COVID 19 may not be apparent or readily observable in these gloomy times but with the right plans in place, recovery is inevitable. It is quite evident that the COVID 19 pandemic has done a pretty good job at exposing the weaknesses and shortcomings of the various sectors mostly health and transportation sectors. It has revealed the lack of emergency preparedness and poor crisis management. Nonetheless, this unprecedented break, if well managed could provide the needed time for restructuring. In the time being, the use of cues to remind people about social distancing, the availability of public hand sanitizers and compulsory face mask laws have all proved and remained effective in promoting positive attitude, inspiring healthy behaviours, curbing the spread of the virus and consequently, flattening the curve.