Woman who Lost her Job during Lockdown Shares Touching Story
- A 48-year-old woman, Bunmi Oyebamiji-Ojo, who was struggling on a R1 100 salary as a hotel cook, lost her job as lockdown kicked in
- With no other source of income, the woman became a labourer as a way to ensure her family had food to eat
- After doing that for a while, she turned to food business, a venture that is giving her a petty income of R700 every month
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A woman, Bunmi Oyebamiji-Ojo, was greatly affected by the global coronavirus pandemic that she became a roadside food seller.
Humangle reports that the 48-year-old woman lost her job as her place of employment downsized due to the lockdown.
All that the primary-school-leaver knew about Covid-19 were things she had heard from conversations around her.
When she was called at work about the need to let her go, Bunmi’s supervisor promised her the disengagement would only last for a while.
Source: UGC
After the lockdown was eased, the woman’s hope of returning to work was dashed as no call came.
Before she lost her job, she was managing a R1100 salary with her son who is an undergraduate at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho.
Narrating her story, the woman told Humangle:
“I was at my lowest point in life. Hunger was biting hard. There was nobody to turn to. Despite my terrible condition, my siblings, both young and old, kept asking for help from me without knowing what I was passing through. Mama Abuja, give us this and that. That was all they usually say.”
The 48-year-old woman worked as a labourer at a site for a while before the supervisor advised her to go into food business.
With the new venture, she is only able to make R700 a month as she may be evicted soon from her home.
Meanwhile, Briefly.co.za earlier reported that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicated that 42% of hitherto employed Nigerians lost their jobs due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NBS report which was published on Friday, June 5, was titled COVID-19 National Longitudinal Phone Survey (COVID-19 NLPS).
In other news, Briefly.co.za reported that between 2.5 million and 3.6 million fewer South Africans were employed between the months of February and April due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is according to the National Income Dynamics Study Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey, which assessed the impact of the crisis on employment using a sample of 7 000 citizens.
Researchers found that employment levels declined by a worrying 18% during this period and the vulnerable were the worst affected.
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Source: Briefly News
Sibusisiwe Lwandle (Head of Entertainment) Sibusisiwe Lwandle is the Head of Entertainment at Briefly News (joined in 2019). She holds one Bachelor of Arts (BA) and one Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from the University of Cape Town and the University of KZN respectively. She has over 10 years of experience in journalism, having worked in print, online and broadcast media. She has worked at Independent Media and 1KZNTV and has contributed columns to the Washington Post. Passed set of trainings by Google News Initiative. Email: sibusisiwe.lwandle@briefly.co.za
Kelly Lippke (Senior Editor) Kelly Lippke is a copy editor/proofreader who started her career at the Northern-Natal Courier with a BA in Communication Science/Psychology (Unisa, 2007). Kelly has worked for several Caxton publications, including the Highway Mail and Northglen News. Kelly’s unique editing perspective stems from an additional major in Linguistics. Kelly joined Briefly News in 2018 and she has 14 years of experience. Kelly has also passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative. You can reach her at kelly.lippke@briefly.co.za.
