BoBo GloBal RELIEF FUND- Help us survive COVID-19

Our dearest friends, family, followers and beloved clients,

        The world has changed, as we all have witnessed in the last few months. We don't think the majority of us realized just how much our lives would be turned upside down from this disease turning into a pandemic, shutting down the world for an indefinite period of time.

     This all unfolded so quickly, and swept away plans and people, so many people lost their lives. We feel deeply saddened that so many people have unexpectedly died due to this virus. We understand how it has affected all areas of our lives in every capacity, it's a very despairing time.  Here is our story and how COVID-19 has affected us and our business greatly.

OUR STORY:

   Most of you who know us and our business model know that every year in March we take a monthly trip to a new country where we visit indigenous communities, work and collaborate with the local artisans, visit sustainable, fair trade manufacturers and factories, source and buy vintage textiles, clothing and make jewelry.  This yearly trip and travel is essential to our business, this is how we make, create and source new inventory. 

   Our plan for our 2020 business trip was to return to India, visit more sustainable manufacturers, see our friends in Pushkar to make more of our iconic dresses from vintage tribal textiles, get silver jewelry made with local gems and then arrive in Sri Lanka where we had meetings set up to visit several green factories that only work with sustainable materials using fair trade practices. Our plans were made in late fall, meetings arranged, flights booked and we left on March 1st, not having really any idea what was about to unfold across the world. We can't imagine that any of us did.

    Our first 2 weeks in India were successful. We traveled, we worked with local gypsy tribes, set up manufacturing for our spring 2020 collection, accomplished most of what we set out to do. There were no concerns at the time, however as soon as we landed in Sri Lanka everything changed drastically, the cases were rising around the world, they started implementing lock-downs and mandatory stay-at-home orders from governments globally.

   Soon after we arrived in Sri Lanka they had shut down its borders and flights were cancelled.  We were in Colombo meeting with manufactures but with the country's mandatory shut-down and  no way of safely continuing with our schedule we decided to flee east of the country far from the hot spots. We arrived in a small town, with a small population close to the ocean. We spent 3 weeks ordered in quarantine by the police in a small hostel close to the beach, we are still here for an undetermined amount of time.

     We are safe, we have the basics we need however we are running out of funds and options. We have had three return tickets back that have been cancelled and with all the current news that is going on back in the States we have come to the decision that it is safer for us to remain here until the peak of the situation has subsided in New York City.

WHY WE ARE ASKING FOR HELP:

This GoFundMe was created to ask everyone in our close community and beyond who has the means to contribute if they can to help our business survive this COVID-19 pandemic.  We also need help  to survive here in Sri Lanka, our lives back home and to purchase a return ticket back to New York.

    We have no income coming in. We used up all our available funds to pay the bills back home and to support our survival here in Sri Lanka as we only had enough money for us to stay here until April 1st which was when we were supposed to be back in New York to start work.
  We will most likely purchase another return ticket to the States in the next week for the second week of May or whenever the flights are available. It's important to wait as the flights are being cancelled daily so the best is to wait until the situation has stabilized, but we need your help.

     Since we are currently stranded in Sri Lanka  we are unable to promote our website and send out our orders at this time. Each year we take the month of March off from business in order to prepare for the next busiest times of year for us which is April and May.  By the end of March we are already done with our spring collection excited and ready to start the spring season. This year, undoubtedly we are unable to move forward in opening business for spring. 
    Our normal places of business i.e. markets, street fairs, festivals, pop-ups and events will be closed and shut down for the unforeseeable future. We have no way of generating business for months to come except for online which we will work very hard, updating and promoting by any means possible when possible. We depend a great deal on the income that comes in in April and May, not only to feed ourselves, pay rent, pay the bills, pay off our lenders to keep our business in good standing but also many artisan families around the world rely on our business to survive. We support many indigenous families, they depend on us a great deal as well, so we can not let this business crumble.

WHY THIS IS OUR LAST RESORT:

     We have spent weeks applying for business loans, grants, unemployment but the only responses we have been receiving are that the government has run out of any funds to help small businesses. Money for SBA LOANS and DISASTER LOANS have run out but we continue to apply but there seems to be little help we can expect, not even unemployment is something we are able to receive.

WHY THIS GOAL AMOUNT:

$12,000 is the minimal amount that would keep us and our business in good standing for the next 6 weeks.

$5200: Business bills (website, storage, marketing, lenders, and loans)
$1200: Tickets back to the US
$4000: New York rent
$800:  Wages to artisans
$1000: Food, water, shelter in Sri Lanka for both

  We are in desperate times, therefore any donation made will be used to help buy ourselves return tickets, pay for food, lodging here, business bills and to pay our rent so we can still return to a home back in New York.

Our landlord is not helping its tenants in any way, in fact they are deliberately ignoring any of emails and pleas. This is a very scary time for us all, we understand. Normally, it is not in our character to ask for help but we are in a very difficult situation and we have no other options. We appreciate you all for your support and help.

IN RETURN FOR YOUR DONATION:

In exchange for any donation we can offer a gift card of the same amount to anything on our website. We will also be adding to our website every few days new items that we have available to us now in Sri Lanka.  When submitting your donation please provide us with your email so we may digitally send you a gift card to use now or in the future, it will never expire. Once we have returned to New York all orders will ship within the week.

We love and appreciate you all for your help and support. Sending love and light to you around the world.

Alexia Sobrado and Felicia Lieto
BoBo GloBal