The majority of women street vendors in Dhaka are principal earners at family, single mothers or widows. Their whole family is dependent on their income for food and survival, but the COVID-19 pandemic has destroyed their livelihoods.
These women could only just survive on the daily income from their microbusiness before the pandemic struck - now they are living in misery as social distancing measures are preventing them from working and making life even harder for them. Many have already used their own personal savings to survive the lockdown and are now unable to continue to fund their business.
We are raising money to provide support to 200 of the most vulnerable women street vendors in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We are raising money to provide:
1. Food for these women and their families, including rice, dal, cooking oil, milk powder, potatoes and other essentials.
2. Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as reusable face masks and face shields and hand sanitizer. These would allow them to begin to work again safely.
Finally, we are also aiming to provide grants to help 50 of these women restart their businesses and begin to work again.