The People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) Masking Guyana initiative that has seen persons from Regions 3, 4, 5, and 6 getting onboard to create thousands of cloth masks to protect from the coronavirus that has claimed six lives here is well on its way to reaching it’s 10,000 goal this week.
So far 5,000 masks were said to have been completed since Monday. The programme was launched on Saturday at Leonora where 1,000 masks were distributed while an additional 1,500 were distributed at Parika, Canal Number One Polder and Tiger Bay. Representatives on Monday went around to the various car parks distributing these masks while yesterday the management of the Uitvlugt Sugar Estate was given given 450 masks that they have promised to distribute to their workers. Mask distributions reached as far as Rosignol and Canje, West Coast and East, Berbice. Meanwhile, executive member of the PPP, Gail Teixeira has sent bales of cloth to Regions 1, 9, 7, and 10.
Under the Covid-19 Commit-tee, the PPP presidential candidate Irfaan Ali’s vision is to push out 50,000 of these facemasks to assist in combating the novel coronavirus. Though the project was birthed by an opposing party, other smaller parties such as the Liberty and Justice Party, Change Guyana, United Republican Party and The Citizenship Initiative along with the private sector have collaborated in this joint effort and The Citizenship Initiative will be delivering 60 masks along with sanitisers to medical personnel in Mahdia. The Leonora Police Station received 50 masks on Saturday while PPP member, Hugh Todd, donated 50 masks to the Brickdam Police Station on Tuesday.
The masks are said to be made according to the standard design approved by the US CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion) through cottage industries instead of any business corporations. These are individuals who have agreed to undertake this project providing that they are given cloth and elastic, according to PPP member Sasenarine Singh.
Since word has gone out for persons to sew theses masks, the COVID19 committee has been approached by 120 tailors and seamstresses. So far 45 tailors and seamstresses have been commissioned and every day an average of 20 more are added. There are said to be four packing stations – Canal Number One, West Bank Demerara; Stewartville, West Coast Demerara; Grove, East Bank Demerara; and Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara. Once the facemasks get to the stations, they are washed, sprayed with alcohol and ironed. They are then packaged in plastic and labelled with instructions for care. Work stations are set up six feet apart and persons responsible for packaging the masks wear gloves and masks while handling the items before using tweezers to put the masks in the packets, thus avoiding contamination by hand. In addition, there are medical professionals who supervise and ensure that the stringent protocols are being followed.
Singh also disclosed that on Monday, Demerara Distillers Limited donated 25 gallons of sanitising fluid to his team. Some of the fluid has been given to the 4 packing stations and the remainder distributed elsewhere. The East Coast packing station will be distributing to Mahaica and Mon Repos later this week while on the East Bank Demerara, the team there will be distributing to the Grove and Diamond areas. The West Bank Demerara team will be headed to Wales and La Grange and the West Coast Demerara team will be distributing at Cornelia Ida and Uitvlugt.
“It’s moving so fast. We’re hoping that the state agency will take the slack up next week but we can’t wait until next week for people to get masks so we’re hoping to put out 10,000 masks by the end of this week. Comrade Irfaan Ali is only committed to 50,000 masks but we have 450,000 adults plus we would need for the children so we need the government to come on board here. We’re expecting the Ministry of Health and the CDC (Civil Defence Commission) to step in and step up. Guyana has to be saved and we can’t wait to save the people, we have to save them like yesterday,” Singh declared. He further stated that in a bid to see 10,000 facemasks being made within this week, persons are on their feet up to ten hours a day sewing them.
There is a standard stipend for those who agree to take on this project but according to Singh most of the tailors and seamstresses have chosen to work for nothing once they are provided the materials.
The Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha is said to be among several organizations making masks and is aiming to make 30,000 of these masks. The Muslim Youth Organization is also making masks in collaboration with the Private Sector Commission and other bodies around the country. “I got a call from the toshao of St Cuthbert’s Mission who asked for a bolt of cloth [which was expected to have been distributed yesterday]. They within the community will make their own masks. This project would have not been successful if the private sector didn’t step in. A lot of businessmen donate cloth and elastic while some who couldn’t have donated elastic sold us elastic at 50% discount,” added Singh.
Meanwhile, Paul Cheong who is responsible for the making of masks on the West Bank Demerara and West Coast of Demerara said, “We have members of the different communities sewing these masks while other teams are packaging. What I noticed since we’ve begun distributing these masks, persons receiving these masks are anxious about all of this and are [eager] to accept. I feel privileged to be a part of this and that we can do something to help people. Guyana is at an incubation stage, we don’t know who has the virus at this time because of the limited testing that is being done. We have to assume that everybody has it and therefore everyone needs to protect themselves.”
