School bags are not currently much in demand since schools in most countries may not complete the academic year due to the coronavirus pandemic. So a small company in the West Bank and Gaza, Zoom Bags, decided to help local medical staff by switching production from school bags to coveralls, leveraging past support from the EBRD.
Zoom Bags has been a client of the EBRD since 2017 under its Advice for Small Businesses programme, funded by the European Union. The programme assisted the company by providing advice on information technology to manage their finances, develop their production and decrease its cost, along with the opportunity to acquire an ISO 9001 managerial certificate to help with marketing and exporting.
To keep up with the demand in the West Bank and Gaza, Zoom Bags created their own design for the coveralls and creatively employed the raw materials that were formerly used to make children’s mattresses, which have antibacterial, anti-fire and water proof components that are all preventive of the virus. They tested their new design by gifting some sample to hospitals and received very positive feedback. They then decided to send samples to the Palestinian Standards Institution who approved their design on account of its high quality and low price to help medical practitioners do their jobs and keep safe.
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