Amarnath is a 20 year old who has been part of the Career Connect Programme for over 4 years; he has attended various programmes at the centre and has co-designed sessions for other young people who want to invest their time in learning C++ and Java in a simple and fun manner.
During the COVID-19 crisis, Amarnath’s parents who work as daily wage labourers in a garment factory were pushed into unemployment and forced to live off their life savings.
Amarnath shares, before the lockdown my family had a steady income but after 20 days of lockdown we started to face lots of problems without any money coming in as most of my father’s salary goes into clearing loans. With both my parents unemployed we were unsure on how to lead our lives”.
With the rising number of cases in Bangalore, Amarnath observed that in the upcoming days there would be a huge demand for masks and PPE kits; Amarnath saw this as an opportunity to help not only his family but also the community.
Amarnath shares “Since my parents are tailors and are experts in taking bulk orders; we learnt from you-tube how to make masks and PPE kits. We as a family started stitching masks and PPE kits from the money we had saved”.
Amarnath and his family made 50 PPE kits and 60 masks “We took at least 10 days to make the PPE kits and masks. In the beginning, there was no demand and we didn’t make any sales. Then I started working on how we can market the PPE kits and Masks. We gave free samples of the PPE kit to our family doctor who shared with other doctors. At the same time, we started to sell masks in our neighbourhood and started giving covid-19 awareness to people”.
Amarnath was able to make Rs 11,000 in a month by selling PPE kits and masks.
Amarnath was able to adapt, evolve and thrive in the face of an uncertain future. He was able to assess the need of the hour and was able to help his family come out of dire situation that the pandemic had brought with it.
Like Amarnath many of our young people are able to recognise the needs in their community and emerge as champions of change. The life skills and role modelling developed in the Career Connect Programme helped them ADAPT, EVOLVE and THRIVE during uncertainty.
“Since my parents are tailors and are experts in taking bulk orders; we learnt from youtube how to make masks and PPE kits. We as a family started stitching masks and PPE kits from the money we had saved”.