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EDF’s Response To Coronavirus

EDF’s Response to Coronavirus

As the world faces the COVID-19 pandemic, societies have to endure overwhelming social and economic challenges in addition to dealing with the worse public health crisis of the century. The coronavirus crisis in multiple and overlapping dimensions and levels affects individuals and communities, particularly the disenfranchised and vulnerable. Further, in the turbulent and uncertain environment created by the pandemic, it is more vital than ever for the public and private sectors to work with civil society organizations. In Iran, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, NGOs play a significant role in ensuring communities and target groups are not deprived of the social, economic, and healthcare that they acutely need.

EDF is a nonprofit organization active at the national level connecting and engaging with a variety of community-based organizations and local NGOs in underserved and peripheral regions. Additionally, EDF assists individual small business owners, with priorities given to women, providing them with educational, and consultation support. As a result of the national lockdown and then travel restrictions, EDF adopted 2 strategies: firstly, relying on local NGOs that EDF works within Zahedan city, Sistan and Balouchestan province, we distributed hygienic and essential items among community members and raised awareness about the virus and health protocols among women, and the youth in different neighborhoods and informal settlements. Secondly, we also organized online training programs for small business owners.

In line with specialized activities of EDF, we have defined various online and offline activities for our target groups such as training programs, a series of Instagram live discussions, webinars, organizing virtual exhibitions, and conducting research and interview-based field studies.

Currently, all EDF activities are divided into three main projects. The same approach is taken in our response to COVID-19:

  • Local Community Development
  • Youth Empowerment – with a business and entrepreneurial approach
  • Entrepreneurship Lab in Schools

I. Local Community Development

As it was not possible to be physically present to implement our programs in Sistan and Balouchestan, EDF reviewed its ongoing projects and adapted them to the current situation. Our project Personal and Social Empowerment of Adolescents and Youths in Zahedan province substituted activities that needed physical presence with other safe and possible replacements. Consequently, we managed to prevent the project from a forced stop. The target group of this project are involved in summer internships and student-master courses, and university entrance exam preparation programs.

Another branch of Hoda House (local NGO) has been established in Negor city of Sistan and Baluchestan province all with the efforts and participation of our local facilitators and charitable bodies and individuals with the aim of empowering female-headed households and create self-help groups. Various local handicrafts will be crafted in the House include costume sewing, needlework, etc. The procurement of food products is another activity of Hoda House in Negor. To initiate their activities, women of Hoda House are involved in a local mask production workshop that brings both a stream of income for their families, and at the same time improves the safety of families with less access to resources and health products during the pandemic.

Other activities in the division of Local Community Development include:

  • Live discussions on Instagram:
  • “How not to give up doing good?”

A discussion on the challenges of local NGOs during the pandemic, in a conversation between Zahra Emrani, EDF’s board member, and Marzieh Mahmoodi, EDF’s project officer.

  • “Neighborhood-oriented management”

A discussion on the role of local NGOs and facilitators in protecting communities during the pandemic, in a conversation between Firouzeh Saber, EDF’s founder, and Neda Shams, EDF’s CEO.

  • “The Technique of Responsible Companionship with and for the People”

A series of online workshops conducted by Kazem Motavali and Naser Nourbakhsh. The workshop brought together for the first time local facilitators from different ethnicities and provinces of Iran.

II. Youth empowerment

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted children and their families in myriad ways, with some vulnerable families feeling the effects more severely. Similarly, the pandemic has also affected small and micro businesses in diverse facets. Throughout the years, EDF has supported a large network of small business owners, the majority of whom are women in underserved areas of Iran, through training, consultations, and facilitating activities. We stood with them through the difficult situations that had left many of them hopeless, many whom feared losing their businesses entirely. We teamed up with the private business sector, and experts in organizing 10 webinars in the field of business resilience solutions. All webinars included personal support and consultations for the participants on how to deal and adjust their businesses to the new pandemic environment and to come up with new creative solutions. The list of webinars is as follows:

  • Terms and Conditions for Small Businesses
  • Basic principles of accounting
  • Digital marketing
  • Sublimation and organizational leadership
  • Expert webinar on agriculture and animal husbandry
  • Expert webinar on garment and tailoring
  • Expert webinar on the food industry
  • Expert webinar on services
  • Expert webinar on handicraft
  • Human resources management webinar

In addition, EDF live discussions were streamed for the public:

  • Continuity of micro-businesses in Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis – By Zahra Rahaei, member of EDF’s board of director
  • Use of space and virtual services in the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis – By Behrouz Ahmadzadeh, Marketing & Branding Advisor
  • The necessity of managerial competencies in the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis – By Naser Barati, member of EDF’s board of directors

III. Entrepreneurship Lab in Schools

Entrepreneurship Lab in Schools is a sought after annual program implemented by EDF in South Khorasan and Sistan and Balouchestan that focuses on students. Virtual workshops were implemented for teachers and students and after a difficult year impacted by the pandemic, Entrepreneurship Lab arrived at the last stage of the 2019-2020 academic year. Students involved in this project showcased their work and services in a virtual exhibition held in this manner due to the coronavirus pandemic. This virtual exhibition was held in cooperation with Dastadast, a nonprofit online platform that supports small business owners, local and rural handicraft makers and connects them to buyers.

IV. Researches and more virtual training programs

EDF also conducted international comparative research on available supports for SMEs in the COVID-19 crisis. The results of the research were published as a guidebook in partnership with Iran NGO Network so all more than 160 national NGOs could benefit from it, adjusting their programs, and designing new projects.

A live discussion (including a question and answer session) based on the results of this research was also streamed on Instagram. It was a conversation between Marzieh Mahmoodi, project officer at EDF, and Shima Vezvaei, communication manager at EDF.

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