Salwa Al-Sari … a young Yemeni woman saves her community from...

With the monitoring of the first case of Coronavirus in Yemen last April, the population did not surrender to this epidemic that killed many in the world, but rather did everything in their power to limit its spread in a country suffering from the worst humanitarian and health conditions as a result of a war raging 6 years ago. .

In light of the spread of this disease, some youth initiatives emerged that worked to support society to combat the Corona epidemic, which has killed more than 600 Yemenis and infected more than two thousand people, amid estimates that the number is much higher because of the country’s lack of testing devices.

Among these initiatives, the initiative of the young woman, Salwa Al-Sari, came to open a factory for the production of protective tools against the Coronavirus, including face covers, masks of all kinds, both cloth and medical, and protective suits and foot and head covers.

Salwa tells her story with great happiness and satisfaction, and says that she contributed and provided preventive goods from the Corona virus in the local market very well, and their prices were very symbolic and almost negligible.

Helping society is a humanitarian goal

In an interview with German News Agency, Salwa says that she chose this project in the capital, Sanaa, because there was an urgent need to save and help the community, which for her is a humanitarian goal, not for profit.

She indicated that the financing for the project was personal financing with a financial loan, and that was during the ban on imports to Yemen and the closure of the ports due to the Corona virus, which caused the lack of protective materials, including masks, from the market, and this created fear and panic in society, and greed and greed among merchants who exaggerated the prices of those The materials are so crazy.

Crisis and opportunity

She points out that, with her team, she was able to turn the crisis into an opportunity by attracting dozens of workers from productive families, and providing them with job opportunities and sources of income.

One of Salwa’s main goals was to provide prevention tools at nominal prices and high quality, and she says, “We have brought our products to all Yemeni governorates, and we have supported public health facilities such as quarantine centers, health offices and hospitals in remote areas without charge, as an emergency humanitarian response, in addition to the distribution of approximately 10% of production.” To poor neighborhoods and families for free.

Jobs

In addition to Salwa’s initiative to aid society in getting rid of the epidemic, her activity was also a reason for some obtaining job opportunities in a country where most of its youth suffer from unemployment.

“We provided nearly 200 job opportunities with excellent wages, and we targeted destitute families, the unemployed youth and the breadwinner for his family,” Salwa says.

The profit and sales system in the project gave an amount of 50% of the commodity value to the product, and 50% was distributed on raw materials, support, humanitarian contribution and other costs and expenses.

Ambitions and laws

Salwa aspires to achieve a lot, and says, “We hope to sell the amount of product currently in stock, and the continuation of such projects that provide a large number of job opportunities, benefit society and the economy, and contribute to improving the local product.” She pointed out that “this will only be done through the enactment of laws that limit imports and support local production.”

Salwa said that with the arrival of commercial products from abroad, her factory’s production decreased, and production is now at a much lower rate than before.

And the decline in demand for masks and prevention tools may come with the continued decline of the Corona virus in Yemen during the past months, as it is noticed that many people are reluctant to wear protective equipment after the great decline of the virus.

School uniform production

To this day, Salwa is still trying to revive the project again by making other products and offering them in the market, after the decline in sales of Corona protection tools.

Salwa says that she sought the project of producing school uniforms as a good and temporary alternative in terms of providing job opportunities, but the cash flow to buy the uniform fabrics hindered her.

And she stated that producing about 10,000 school uniforms needs materials worth 40 million Yemeni riyals (the dollar equals 600 riyals), and this is a large amount that hinders what it is seeking, adding, “I tried to produce about a thousand school uniforms after I tried to convince a financier to lend me one million Yemeni riyals, and my experience was successful. … the product was distinguished and competitive in quality and price, in addition to the fact that schools gave priority to buying from us, as the project was to support orphan education.

“We have achieved success on two levels: providing job opportunities, sponsoring orphans, recovering capital, in addition to signing production contracts for the next year,” she said.

She complained that she is currently short of raw materials or capital to buy them. She said, “We are trying very hard to find a funding party, and if we do not find, we will apologize and cancel these contracts until we get relief.”

3 letters

Salwa addresses her message to the relevant official authorities, stressing that there will be no economy “unless you encourage production, and you create a supportive and supportive environment by giving grants and loans to small projects.”

In her message to Yemeni citizens, she says, “You will not eliminate poverty and you will not see your country as self-sufficient unless you encourage the local product to buy. Even if it is of lower quality, through buying we will improve production and contribute to job opportunities and fight poverty and unemployment.”

Salwa also sent a third message to international organizations and institutions saying, “If a part of those billions that are spent on relief is allocated to support small projects, we would have achieved sustainable development and self-sufficiency, and we would not need relief or support, but rather we would become one of the countries that give and help.”