Most Kenyans and Ugandans live on a daily wage – they have to go to work, or can’t feed their families, and in large slums like Kibera, where most of our jewellery is made, social distancing is near to impossible. Sanitation is the next best step and we are delighted to be working with Zuri Foundation to be providing community hand-sanitisers and masks – for more details see our Just Giving site and please make a donation if you can, and share the page with others!

There have been very few Covid-19 cases in Kenya and Uganda so far, in Nairobi there is a strict lockdown including a curfew from 7pm to 5am. Whether the virus will spread is uncertain, we really hope not as the health facilities are so limited.

In Tabaka where our soapstone is made, the damage has been largely economic, with many customers in the US and Europe cancelling orders. We are delighted to say therefore that we have actually been able to increase orders, both to our supplier Undugu and to Zuri, with several new designs, rainbow animals and the like, which will be in our August trade catalogue.

Rainbow soapstone animals coming soon

In Uganda, our handmade cards (p228 of our trade catalogue) are from a rural community near Jinga. We have identified the most vulnerable families which we want to support through food and health aid at a time when work is almost non-existent. Uganda is under extremely tight restrictions – no private vehicles are allowed at all on the roads for instance. So far there have been no deaths from Covid-19 but we are keen to support our suppliers there, whose lives are pretty much on the edge in any case, as much as we can.

One of the handmade cards we source from Uganda