Chris: Hello Joyce, I just wanted to check in before we publish your podcast episode, how are you? How is the health of you and your family and team?
Joyce: We are all healthy and have not had any major healthy challenges. Only my mum has had anxiety related healthy issues due to being worried about the COVID-19 impact and the fact that she could not see any of us due to lock down.
Chris: How is the Global Pandemic impacting life in Uganda and Eastern Africa?
Joyce: The Global Pandemic has had a huge impact on peoples’ lives within East Africa and Africa at large. The total lock down has left many lives devastated and hopeless. The fear of the spread of the deadly corona virus has caused a lot of psychological and domestic violence as well. It will take some time to recover from both economic and psychological depression. Therefore, a lot of behavioral change and support is needed to ensure the largest population of mainly youth remain focused and get fear out of them.
Chris: Is there lockdown and social distancing protocols – has this impacted your social enterprises?
Joyce: Yes this has impacted on my business model largely because, it has meant working from home and conduct online engagements/meetings with all our partners and clients. This is strange in our set up, however, we have got to embrace this as the new normal.
Chris: How is your social enterprise program and community doing, what has happened since our conversation?
Joyce: Since we last talked, all programme related work went on halt due to the lock down. We had to immediately change the ways of work and opted for online engagements with the social entrepreneurs. this has not been easy due to limited internet connections and also culture change as many people were used to face to face engagements. Business model has totally changed.
Chris: How do you think about the challenges for the future?
Joyce: While challenges are there and inevitable, on a positive outlook this will bring new opportunities that we should be prepared to seize. Its business unusual and we have to leave cautiously and change the business model through adoption of digital platforms.
Chris: Please stay safe and stay in touch and thanks again for recording the podcast – let’s get your podcast launched.