Zarchi Lwin pawned her only two gold bangles for $140 when the owner of the Myanmar factory where she sewed winter coats for British retailer Next Plc shut it down after orders dried up due to the coronavirus.
She is one of hundreds of thousands of garment workers across Asia who have been laid off, according to the Workers Rights Consortium, a labor rights campaign group, and are now struggling to survive with little welfare support, mired in debt and in many cases reliant on food handouts.
"If I have a job and an income, I can pay for medical treatment for my mother," Zarchi Lwin, 29, said from the home she shares with her 56-year-old mother, who has lung disease, in a shanty town on the outskirts of Yangon. "Now no income, no job," she said, fighting back tears. "We don’t know what to do."