Masks for those who need them most

Singapore

MASKS For All SG, a ground-up advocacy movement, will distribute 500,000 masks as part of an educational outreach initiative.

Aiming to promote a culture of mask-wearing, it is reaching out mainly to charitable organisations and vulnerable groups across Singapore to advise on the proper use of face masks during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Masks For All SG is approaching ex-offenders, rental-block residents, isolated seniors, students with special needs, adults with disabilities and charitable organisations such as AWWA, SUN-DAC and Kreta Ayer Seniors Activity Centre.

It kicked off a series of social media campaigns in early May and is now planning to expand it in early June.

Von Leong, co-founder of Masks For All SG, said: "We are committed to complementing the government's efforts alongside our partners in the public, private and community sectors.

"We aim to look at the gaps in care among those who may not know how to access or use masks properly. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, along with prolonged social distancing measures, it has become harder to educate the public on taking care of certain groups who may slip through the system."

The 4,000-plus-strong volunteer group believes that as Singaporeans, they have a duty to care for the vulnerable and those largely not integrated into the community - isolated seniors and migrant workers living outside dormitories especially.

Masks For All SG will give priority to these high-risk groups and provide them direct support in the coming weeks.

The group is partnering government agencies and firms such as the Ministry of Culture, Community & Youth; SingHealth's Emergency Medicine Academic Clinical Programme (EM ACP); and Prudential Singapore in their initiatives.

The masks provided are currently crowd-sourced, with contributions coming from various community groups like Masks Sewn With Love, Contribute.sg and TeamCareMask.

In similar efforts, China-based ZALL Group (Zall) has also donated one million surgical masks to the Singapore Red Cross. The shipment arrived in Singapore on May 22 from China on Singapore Airlines, and was delivered by the ezbuy.sg land transportation fleet.

Benjamin William, secretary general/CEO of Singapore Red Cross, said: "The masks are a precious resource, and we will be distributing them to thousands in these vulnerable groups.

"The masks will also help protect our frontline staff and volunteers as they serve the most vulnerable in our community, like the elderly living alone, the severely disabled in our Red Cross Home for the Disabled and the migrant workers living in the dormitories."

Chin Yau Seng, Singapore Airlines' senior vice-president, Cargo, said the airline plays an important role in transporting essential medical supplies and other equipment that support Singapore's battle against the Covid-19 pandemic".

"We are pleased to work with Zall on this initiative, which helps to increase the supply of face masks and safeguards the general public health," he added.

Zall, Asia's leading business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce group, was the first company to respond and deliver emergency medical supplies to Wuhan on Jan 26 within 48 hours of the city's lockdown, riding on its global end-to-end supply chain capabilities, networks and resources in Asia.