We continue our efforts to support Masaka through COVID-19, plus...
...Our factory build begins!
Hello there! As we approach the midpoint of the year (really where has first-half of 2020 gone!?), we hope you're keeping safe wherever you are in the world. In June, at Eco Brixs HQ in Masaka, we've continued to work on supporting the community through the pandemic, via the Relief Programme and plastic face shield production. Thankful, reported cases of COVID-19 have remained low, but the on-going lockdown continues to challenge the community, and there is increasing concern that the recent, slow increase in cases means the virus is about to spread across Uganda.
As it's been three months since we began the programme, we thought now would be a great time to share an update summarising how your support has allowed us to protect the community during the COVID-19 situation.
Furthermore, Eco Brixs recently made the headlines of a national newspaper, and we're taking the next step in our journey to form a closed-loop system to help solve Uganda's plastic problem...
Supporting Masaka through COVID-19: The Impact so far...
Since the beginning of April, we've been working to support Masaka through the COVID-19 global pandemic. The relief programme has been made up of a number of elements, from helping the hospital prepare to combat the virus, to carrying out food distributions for the most vulnerable. It's also allowed us to use our business model to create plastic face shields for individuals, especially frontline workers such as doctors and nurses.
However, none of this would have been possible without your support, so we wanted to say a MASSIVE thank you! We realise everyone is facing challenges right now due to the economic downturn, which makes you generosity all the more incredible and appreciated.
Together, we've been able to...
You've made a huge difference in helping vulnerable people to keep food on the table during the lockdown and helped to prevent the spread of the virus, which would be exceptionally difficult to contain in an African country.
Over the coming weeks, we'll continue to use the funds to distribute food to the vulnerable community and work with the hospital to reduce the spread of the virus. For those who have donated, we'll also be circulating an impact report detailing how your contribution has helped the community.
If you're yet to donate and would like to, especially as the lockdown is set to continue and cases are now steadily rising, you can do so here.
Our Factory Build Begins!
The middle of June saw Eco Brixs HQ receive an exciting delivery - the delivery of this 40ft shipping container!
"Why", you ask?
Well, we're planning to convert it into the factory building that will house our machine lines to produce our full range of Eco-Products (items made from recycled plastic waste). After all, it seemed far more environmentally-friendly to use something which already exists, rather than build something new! 😃
The new machines, to go alongside the current line that produces face shields, are expected to arrive next month as well, so it hopefully won't be too long before we're producing more Eco-Products, such as the bricks in our name! Having items to sell will mean we can independently generate our own revenue, so we can keep paying the community for their plastic.
This represents another big milestone in our journey to tackle Uganda's plastic problem. Be sure to watch this space for updates - via the newsletter and our social media!
Eco Brixs appears on the front page of a Ugandan National Newspaper!
Following the set up of our new machine line to produce Face Shields from recycled plastic waste (to protect frontline workers from COVID-19), we were thrilled to appear on the front page of the New Vision newspaper on Monday 8th June. Printed in the capital city of Kampala, the newspaper is one of two main English language papers in Uganda and has a large following.
We were especially excited to see we'd made the front page, and that our efforts to use our business model to help people through the pandemic have been recognised. Recent weeks have also seen Eco Brixs appear in local papers, radio, podcasts, and a webinar series published by Oxford University in the UK, all of which you can read about below.
Buy a Mask and support Masaka
As you might have seen in our last email, we've now started producing Face Masks in the UK to help raise funds to provide frontline Ugandan workers with our Plastic Face Shields. These fabric masks are made from African material and are being sold to our international market.
For every two fabric masks purchased, we can provide a frontline worker with one Face Shield made from recycled plastic. You can read more about the programme here.
If you would like to help support Masaka whilst helping to protect those around you, you can do so via the button below.
Finally, we just wanted to say...
As we approach the halfway point in 2020, we just wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you for all your support.
Whether you've donated previously, told a friend about our work, or simply just read these emails each month, we wanted to say thanks and how much we really appreciate it.
We really wouldn't be where we are at the moment without your support, and we're excited to have you with us as we move to the next chapter of our story in helping to tackle Uganda's plastic problem - making Eco-Products (ie. the 'Brixs') from plastic waste!
If you'd like to receive Eco Brixs news directly to your inbox each month, we send out a monthly newsletter sharing all the latest developments in our efforts to tackle's Uganda's plastic problem! Please subscribe via the box below! 🇺🇬