It's 1 am and I feel like telling the world how my amazing parents dealt with the pandemic and how proud of them i am. For circumstances, they're business owners in Madagascar with 30 ish employees. They had to close down in the midst of crisis. So here what they did:

1) employees still get full pay. They barely get by on normal days to my parents made sure they're paid and even get an advance on future wages if necessary. No one was cut off. My parents are just middle class business and quarantine meant 0 profit for them.

2) making masks for everyone: they gave extra to one the employee who used to be a seamstress, to saw masks for the employees and their families. 3 each for hygiene. They're not covid19 approved but it's better than nothing.

3) Sharing first necessities: rice price skyrocketed so they decided to share the stock they've been keeping. They buy other stuff at wholesales so that workers can take them at wholesale price instead of the higher price at the grocery store

4) Medical monitoring: one of the worker's daughter is a midwife (w/ an actual degree) so she's monitoring if anyone is showing any kind of symptoms. She also follows up on some who are pregnant or just gave birth so that they don't go to the hospital.

5) Water: during this season, water shortages are common so they always make a huge water reserve at home. They send some to the employees' dorm for them to cook and wash.

I'm not saying all this to brag but just to express how proud and thankful I am to have such amazing parents and role models I have. They're absolutely not the richest people, but at they're own scale, they make changes that might actually save lives