We send our love and solidarity to everyone in these challenging times.
It's time to take stock. To reflect. And to think about the kind of world we want to live in.
Humanity is working together to fight this pandemic. It is encouraging to see how within weeks people have fundamentally changed their long-held habits like shaking of hands. It makes us hopeful that we as humanity have the ability to change other long-held habits and can start fighting many of the other long term crises the world is facing such as climate change and inequality. Together we want to build a better capitalism, a compassionate capitalism, driven by solving global problems.
For the countries we work in including Brazil, Colombia, Uganda, Kenya and India the pandemic could have horrifying consequences. Developing and emerging markets with densely populated areas and less developed healthcare systems will be even less capable to weather this crisis than Europe. Measures being advised globally, are simply not applicable everywhere.
What are we doing?
Since mid-last week, all the Yunus Social Business offices have moved into a remote working mode. We know that small and medium businesses will suffer the most. We have reached out to all our portfolio social businesses to understand how they are affected and how we can help overcome these challenges. We have also reached out to our corporate partners to understand how we can help them to alleviate this crisis and how we can build a more resilient society that is able to come together against pandemics, climate change or poverty.
We are tirelessly working with our partners to develop concrete measures that alleviate the pressure on social businesses around the world. If you would like to help support the social businesses in continuing their essential services in these difficult times, feel free to reach out to info@yunussb.com or Make A Donation.
Stay home and take care of each other.
Social Entrepreneurs and small and growing businesses (SGBs) have been acting as frontline responders during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing services to the most vulnerable populations. But the crisis shed light on the constraints & challenges they face. We call on on corporations, (impact) investors, funders, support organizations and government institutions to stand by social entrepreneurs
By leveraging the power of their people and their commercial acumen, Reckitt's objective with the accelerator is to scale innovative, locally designed approaches in Brazil that enable better access to health and hygiene by collaborating with social businesses.
Amidst the hype from Friday’s Climate Strikes and the ongoing UN Climate Week, it was fantastic to have the opportunity to speak at the #LeadTheBeat B Corporation Summit this week. Having been involved in the social business movement for over ten years, the summit felt like a real moment of change.