Abu Dhabi: Women of the Indian community in Abu Dhabi have taken it upon themselves to help low-income group workers by sewing reusable masks from handmade reusable facemasks and giving it to them free of cost.
More than 20 Indian women have joined hands to prepare such facemasks, which workers can reuse, saving them time and effort. The cotton masks are washable and can be reused over a long period of time.
So far, more than 400 masks have been delivered, with orders lined up for 400 more. The deliveries are expected to be made during the weekend.
Speaking to Gulf News, Sunita Wagle, president of the Indian Ladies Association which is overseeing the exercise, said, “I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all the supporters of the Indian community for their hard work in this challenging time to stitch and provide over handmade face masks to the labourers.”
“Society is going through a testing time due to the spread of COVID-19, which has forced workers to buy facemasks on a regular basis. However, the ILA, a non-profit association, strives to serve the community and we have been approached by a number of labour camps to extend help to provide the masks.”
Work on the the double ply, handmade masks began a month ago. Kits containing a sanitiser, two facemasks and a handkerchief each are distributed among the workers.
Shaveta Kapoor Duggal, a volunteer, said, “it was felt that providing one or two masks per person will not suffice and wouldn’t be long lasting. So we started making reusable cloth masks to serve them for a longer time.”
Navneeta Srivastava, social welfare secretary at ILA, coordinated the effort to train the women in mask-making.
The sanitisation kits were arranged by Archana Malhotra, treasurer at ILA.
