We are supporting textile and garment industries in Ethiopia to produce face masks to preserve jobs
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a worldwide economic downturn. The Ethiopian garment and textile industry are also feeling the effects of this downturn with job losses and idle work. With a project for face mask production we are contributing to preserve jobs in the industry.
A face mask production project is supporting companies with 12,000 employees to preserve jobs during the pandemic. A total of 3.6 million hand-stitched facemasks are being produced by garment and textile industry workers. Employees who would otherwise have been idle were selected from 33 medium and large sized companies located in Addis Ababa, Oromia and Amhara regional states of Ethiopia.
The workers, who will be working for two months, are producing 150 hand-stitched facemasks per month for pay. The project is run by the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Industry with support from the Special Initiative "Decent Work for a Just Transition" of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The Ministry mainly focused on locally owned companies that have a minimum of 80 workers and with a large number of idle workers in selecting the companies.
59 trainers were selected and trained in hand-stitching the desired facemasks. These have guided 12,000 workers and will follow-up on the work through supervision.
The 3.6 million face masks which will be produced over a course of two months will then be distributed freely to households with low income.