( ENSPIRE Community Spotlight ) Home Décor Company, KAZI is Giving Aid to their Workers in Crisis
ENSPIRE Contributor: Tyler Burns
Covid-19 is a worldwide pandemic that is affecting people around the globe but not equally. Africa has been impacted tremendously in several different ways. The global pandemic forced lockdowns which created widespread food scarcity across the continent. KAZI, an American retail company, is an online artisan brand that produces gorgeous handcrafted home goods from within the countries of Rwanda, Uganda, and Ghana. They’re trying hard to support its artisans throughout this very tough time. They are providing direct relief to its Artisans until they can finally get back to work. They are directly aiding their workers in a couple of great ways that should be acknowledged.
“We deeply care for the communities in which we serve,” said co-founding partner and CEO Greg Stone. He willingly remained behind in Uganda during the shutdown to personally oversee the relief efforts.
“Our Artisans have worked long and hard to pull themselves out of poverty and KAZI is not going to sit back and let this pandemic drag them back down. We are going to do whatever is necessary to see them through until everyone can get back to work again.”
“This food aid has helped us a lot because we’ve been struggling to get food. We don’t work anymore these days due to the lockdown and food prices have gone up so we can’t afford anything.” Margaret Bukeneya, an artisan and breadwinner of eight said. “I’m so thankful for this help—I wasn’t expecting it.
It doesn’t take an expert to acknowledge the damage this pandemic has caused on the international economy and if companies acted in similar ways to KAZI they would help alleviate tremendous stress from the average worker’s shoulders. KAZI is setting an example by thinking of and providing for its workforce first and foremost. They are helping the economy of three developing nations and helping the individual lives of the people they employ within Africa. We should all acknowledge and thank the work KAZI is doing for its workforce. Maybe with this strong example being set we’ll see more transnational corporations follow suit in providing direct relief for their workforce.
