Many Rivers has joined a global response & recovery program being coordinated by Youth Business International and funded by Google.org to support under-served micro, small and medium businesses to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
The global economy is suffering from an unprecedented shock as a result of COVID-19. With typically tight margins, micro, small and medium businesses are vulnerable to economic downturn. The current pandemic is having a particularly serious impact on business owners and entrepreneurs from under-served communities, including young people (aged 18-35 years), women, and refugees and other migrants. Many are struggling to get through the crisis and need rapid response & recovery support now.
Many Rivers will use the funds to increase the accessibility of its online business support tools in particular the recently published Top 10 Tips to Protecting Your Business.
“This is a valued opportunity for Many Rivers and we thank YBI and Google.org. This funding will enable us to fast track the digitisation of our practical business support to small business owners. Businesses need to continually finetune, adapt and create, even more so in our current context. Improving accessibility to our practical business support through development of online shared resources will enable us to accelerate the support we provide to our clients and their businesses, and the community more broadly.” – John Burn, Many Rivers CEO & Managing Director
The global programme is led by YBI, an experienced network of enterprise support organisations. It will support over 200,000 small and medium business owners across 32 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific to respond to and recover from the impact of COVID-19. Many Rivers has been part of the YBI network since 2012.
“The world is changing dramatically from day to day and I feel deeply for business owners everywhere, especially those running smaller businesses and are from under-served communities, who are often least able to bear the economic shocks of this crisis.
“In the face of these challenges, I have been incredibly inspired by the quick response of our network to support business owners around the world. YBI, with Google.org’s new funding commitment, will help us sustain and extend this support throughout 2020, ensuring more than 200,000 businesses can get the advice they need right now to navigate this crisis.” – Anita Tiessen, CEO of Youth Business International
“The coronavirus outbreak is taking a devastating toll on lives and communities, and small businesses are facing unprecedented challenges as they struggle to stay afloat. With this grant to Youth Business International, alongside a series of Google initiatives and products, we hope to help some of the most vulnerable small businesses find a way through the crisis.” – Rowan Barnett, Head of Google.org, EMEA & APAC
