Mentorship platform offers COVID-related guidance to small businesses

AMMAN — Amid an unprecedented economic downturn due to the global pandemic, Mercy Corps’ MicroMentor programme launched a COVID-19 response campaign geared towards supporting micro- to medium-sized enterprises in weathering the impacts of the outbreak.

The campaign, which was launched at the end of March, enlists a COVID-19 mentor task force to communicate with entrepreneurs whose work has been affected by the virus. These mentors provide assistance with financial planning, locating, applying for and managing loans and other forms of financing, diversifying income streams and increasing online sales, among other functions, according to the platform’s website.

“Currently, any kind of assistance is needed,” Khaleel Najjar, Senior Programme Manager at Mercy Corps, told The Jordan Times on Sunday.

Najjar noted that COVID-19-specific mentoring helps those seeking funding support, with the aim of helping mentees adjust to the current crisis.

Given Mercy Corp’s goal of economic development, Najjar noted that the survival of a business that has received guidance on how to continue operations during the unfolding crisis is “in itself” an economic development.

“Mentorship has a significant influence on businesses’ resilience against crises, given that assistance is provided by mentors with vast experience,” the senior manager said.

Partnership and Community Growth Coordinator at Mercy Corps Jordan Sally Kafawin told The Jordan Times on Sunday that, on the platform, COVID-19 response badges are placed on the profiles of mentors who can provide guidance related to the novel coronavirus in order to make them identifiable by entrepreneurs who have been affected by the pandemic and are seeking virus-related help.

In addition to the coronavirus-related campaign, Mercy Corps hosted a webinar on the current situation and has remained engaged with developments through social media platforms, Kafawin said.

MicroMentor, a project of the international humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps in cooperation with Mastercard, is a social platform that brings together a community of entrepreneurs and experienced business mentors to “create powerful connections and build successful businesses together”, according to MicroMentor’s official website.

The MicroMentor platform officially kicked off in Jordan in April 2019, while its Arabic edition was launched in January 2020.

Since 2003, Mercy Corps has been working to support Jordanians as well as Syrian refugees, with the aim of building more resilient communities, according to the organisation’s website.