JA Alumni Heroes Tackling COVID-19 – Second Edition
May 26, 2020
We’re excited to share two more stories of incredible JA alumni using their entrepreneurial skills to help those in need and inspire others during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can also read the first two inspiring stories here.
Helping students return home
On March 14, 2020, the Federation of Turkish Cypriot Students in the UK reached out to the Minister of Education in North Cyprus. These students, including JA Cyprus alumnus Adil Bey, were stuck in the UK as a result of the travel ban Cyprus put into effect to restrict movement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The students expressed their concerns about staying in the UK. They did not want to stay because they schools had closed and classes were being held online. Two days later, they reached out to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and started the process of collecting the names of affected Cypriot students. Adil and his peers received hundreds of requests and had to sort out the lists with airlines, agencies, and ministries. They also organized hotels in Cyprus, where the students would remain in quarantine upon their return. From March 17–21, Adil said, their days started at 7 am and ended 21 hours later at 4 am.
Thanks to the efforts of Adil and his peers, two flights left the UK on March 20 and 21, returning 334 students to Cyprus. After 17 days of hotel quarantine, all students returned to their homes on the island. During quarantine, Adil helped act as a mediator between the students and the Ministries of Health, Interior, Education, and the press. He helped students socialize by facilitating online sports events, meme groups, chat groups, tournaments, and other activities to help them “stay sane,” he said. “We also reached out to the Psychologists Association and supplied helplines.”
During the process, before leaving the UK, Adil said, “we wanted to help other Turkish Cypriots studying abroad as well. This was not very easy because our de-facto government has no record of who is studying where. So we formed a ‘Committee of Students Studying Abroad’ and reached out to students all over the world from Canada to Azerbaijan.” Adil’s group has helped students psychologically, organized online events, created chat groups for them to communicate with one another, and are planning many more activities including online tournaments, Kahoot events, and study groups. This opened the gates for the Ministry of Education to record the people and have a database of students studying abroad. “We have helped the students abroad to claim benefits from the government while they stayed abroad,” Adil said. “We have also assisted them to get help packages from Turkish Cypriots in their respective countries. After the quarantine, a friend and I reached out to postgraduate and graduates of economics, finance, tourism, and related subjects, to form the Economic Ideas Committee, which acts to assist the Cabinet of Ministers and take the right steps so our economy does not collapse after the pandemic. We have held numerous long-lasting online meetings and sent our notes to the related ministries. It did have some effects on certain key government decisions. We are still continuing to meet and help as much as we can.”
Adil is part of several associations, one of which reached out to the medical students and coordinated them to be ready in case local hospitals became overrun with patients. With the help of a few friends, Adil gathered dozens of young people to be ready to help municipalities should they need of human resources. “I have been contacted by some distribution charities to help distribute food to the people in need,” Adil said. “We have distributed dozens of help packages. We contacted the foreign students that study in North Cyprus to assist and help them with their needs, because they were left out from the initial pandemic economic plan of the government.” Finally, Adil said, “All the work that we do is voluntary and non-profit. The appreciation we receive is the greatest gift.”
Using social media to motivate youngsters
Eighteen-year-old Kristi volunteers as a video produce for JA alumni in Albania. A participant in the JA Company Program, Kristi has spent a lot of his time in quarantine focusing on improving his entrepreneurship skills. He wanted to create a brand, he said, that would allow him to share his thoughts and talk about entrepreneurship, motivate others, and discuss development with his peers.
He started by posting a video on Instagram, offering advice on how to stay productive during quarantine. “I received a very good feedback and this motivated me even more,” Kristi said. Encouraged, Kristi launched LIVEME, which in English translates to “Live with.” Kristi began conducting interviews with successful Albanian entrepreneurs on Instagram after just over a week of planning. Because Instagram is the most popular social media platform for his target audience, Albanian youth, it was the perfect place to host his content.
LIVEME viewers can ask questions for the interview subjects, and those who don’t catch the broadcast live can access recordings on YouTube. “My goal has always been to offer real success stories and encourage youngsters to work hard and persevere in their dreams, because everything is possible,” Kristi said. “The difficulties I went through and the sleepless nights were totally worth it.” The first LIVEME livestream had 400 views and subsequent episode increased in viewership. “A lot of youngsters have thanked me for the free knowledge we offered them and for boosting their motivation,” Kristi said. “This pandemic has plagued the world, but not our minds. We will keep on using this time to learn more and improve ourselves every day.”
Connect with Kristi on Gather.
Special thanks to JA Alumni Europe for providing these inspiring JA alumni stories.