Covid-19 has caused havoc globally and the most vulnerable communities have been hit the hardest. Some of these communities are based in Pakistan and this is where the Pakistani Organisation and NGO sector has worked incredibly hard to fight the devastating effects of the pandemic.
As a strong advocate for female empowerment and digital literacy Kaarvan found itself facing challenges when it came to sending money and delivering rations to their artisans who are located in far flung backwater regions in Pakistan. Yet the organisation overcame all hurdles and delivered a sustainable flow of cash to all artisans.
The entire campaign was documented via their campaign #BeApartTogether on their social media with visual documentation of the impact of covid on rural areas and the suffering faced by their artisans.
Earlier in June, Kaarvan Crafts Foundation had been recognised by the UK based Bond (an international platform for development) for getting money to underprivileged families for basic necessities. And now in September, the United Nations Civil Society Unit recognised Kaarvan’s #BeApartTogether campaign for identifying and meeting the needs of those affected by Covid-19.
The campaign also resulted in Kaarvan adopting a strategy in which they took digital literacy a step further by training their artisan ahow to place themselves on social media. The result was Kaarvan hosted Pakistan’s first digital exhibition for rural artisans. It was incredible to see artisans navigate their ways through digital platforms such as Whatsapp, Zoom, Facebook and Instagram transitioning from artisans to digitally literate microentrepreneurs.
In October Kaarvan is planning on hosting another digital exhibition with artisan from all over Pakistan making it a national event. It truly is an honour for Kaarvan to be recognised for its efforts and it shows how much more further we need to go in the digital realm.