COVID-19 Good News StorIES
$260,000 ON THE TABLE FOR ENTREPRENEURS, STARTUPS
Parth Patel, Tazwiz CEO and co-founder.
Tazwiz officially launched TazwizCare Aid in early May to help boost Toronto’s economy during the COVID-19 crisis, giving the self-employed jobs and businesses the money to pay for the work.
“We were blessed to receive our last round of 500k in funding just before the pandemic hit,” says Parth Patel, Tazwiz CEO and co-founder. “So, we decided to pay it forward by giving half of it to other entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs who are trying to survive during this unprecedented time in our economy.”
TazwizCare Aid benefits both the businesses, students and professionals on the Tazwiz platform. It helps those looking for work pick up paid opportunities posted by companies that will receive this Aid. Here is the breakdown of what is available:
250M Tazwiz Credits (Worth $250 000) + $10 000 CAD cash
• 500 Businesses will receive 500K each in Tazwiz Credits (Valued at $500)
• 10 Businesses will receive $1000 each in cash
This is a win-win scenario with an influx of local jobs for students and professionals to use their skills for the growth of local business. For example, a business that requires a graphic artist, marketing or accounting can find and pay for those services on the Tazwiz platform.
This Toronto startup has been growing 600% month after month since it officially launched earlier this year and now has more than 3000 registered users. The concept is simple: Create a task, get an offer, connect with the tasker, finalize the details, get the task done. It all takes place on the Tazwiz platform and payment is only made when everyone is satisfied with the job.
Registration is now open for TazwizCare Aid where applicants have until May 20 to fill out required information on how this aid will help their venture. On May 25, the selected businesses will be announced, and recipients will receive their funds within five business days.
The initial platform under the name EMS was born in Parth Patel’s Scarborough home in 2017 and evolved into Tazwiz in 2018 with the assistance of Seneca College’s Helix incubator program. After winning a number of startup competitions, Patel and his team knew they were on to something. In 2019, they secured pre-seed investment and their first office in Oshawa. The team expanded from 3 to 10 plus 8 overseas. With a mobile app developed and a successful soft launch, they received their closed seed round from a U.S investor.
Since their official launch in 2020, they have already expanded their platform by joining with the Ontario Long Term Care Association to build Link to LTC, a hybrid platform specifically designed to connect students in the medical field with long-term care facilities that need assistance. To date, more than 600 people have registered as well as 200 long-term care facilities. Other provinces are now interested in having Tazwiz build the same platform for them.
Another initiative to assist with the COVID-19 crisis, is Foodwiz, which is a contactless delivery service that focuses on partnering with GTA ethnic grocery stores to deliver to their respective communities.
One of their most successful offerings during COVID-19 is Tazwiz Instant Tasks, which allows customers to connect to a professional accountant instantly to get their taxes filed for a set fee of $30 (personal) $75 (self-employed) and $175 for business.
More info at www.tazwiz.com.
Canadian activist and filmmaker Shreya Patel.
resilience in the time of COVID-19
Unity, a global documentary highlighting resilience in the time of COVID-19, by Canadian activist and filmmaker Shreya Patel, who was recently nominated for the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30, debuted May 23 on YouTube.
The short 30-minute documentary that tells the story of young folks from over 60 countries in six continents on how they are experiencing the minute-to-minute changes of this current global pandemic.
“There’s a lot of fear going around,” says Patel, who is practising social distancing and isolation in Toronto as well as her with her parents in her hometown of Sarnia. “These are traumatic and stressful times. But our collective film, Unity, focuses on the test of the human spirit and this is a reminder that we’re all in this together.”
In the film, we see stories from all over the world. In Kenya, Okello Joseph’s survival depends on access to safe drinking water.
In New York City, grade nine student Idan Fierstein documents his experience as his high school becomes the first to close in the city, as well as the recovery of his father – a front line healthcare worker – from COVID-19. In Venezuela, millions are paid a measly $2-4 a month to subsist on the country’s minimum wage.
“It kills your heart a little bit as it shows the reality of the world,” adds Patel. “We want the film to be a message of hope, unity, and a love letter to the world.”
Unity is an extension of #LOVESPREADS, a grassroots effort to unite artists for COVID-19 relief. The organization is using social media and its platform to raise funds for artists that have been affected by the pandemic globally. Currently, #LOVESPREADS have partnered with the Artist Relief Fund (https://www.artistrelief.org/), and Actors Fund Canada (www.afchelps.ca).
“The project started because of the pandemic,” says Patel. “I wanted to concentrate on the positives. What started as a small thing has now evolved into many inspiring people and grew into an organization. Now it feels like it’s slowly becoming a movement,” says Patel. “We’re all in this together.”
To learn more about the project, visit www.lovespreads.org.
To watch Unity’s trailer, click here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwsKdZwn6as&t=3s.
Model turned changemaker, filmmaker, writer, actress, mental health advocate and human rights activist, Shreya Patel is an honoree of the Women’s Achiever Award 2020 for Youth Leadership and nominated for Forbes 30 Under 30. Her directorial debut, the documentary Girl Up, about domestic violence and human trafficking, was picked up by the Toronto International Film Festival to partner and showcase the film at the 2019 Civic Action Summit.
She has appeared in lead roles in numerous short films, improv theatre productions, and most recently in Netflix’s Grand Army, and FX’s Mrs. America. Her first film role in Vivid helped garner the film multiple award nominations. She is a graduate of Second City Conservatory.
In 2018 to 2020, she appeared in Bell Canada’s national mental health awareness ad Bell Let’s Talk, raising visibility and breaking the silence around mental illness and support and has been recognized by Global Affairs Canada for her mental health activism.
Currently, Shreya is writing a TV series about domestic human trafficking in hopes to educate and reach a larger audience worldwide.
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