Although initially there had been doubt
about the effectiveness of a home made cotton face cover, reports from the
Czech Republic proved that their country had found these very effective in
containing the spread of the virus. The eCoexist team, along with help of
several volunteers translated the video form the Czech organisations masks4all.org
into four Indian languages to relay to the Indian public.
eCoexist created a simple DIY poster to help people to start making cotton face masks at home. This poster was designed by Marie Gon, a Dutch designer and then translated into nine Indian languages, and then sent out via social media to several networks around the country. The simple step by step instructions, allowed self help groups to start their own production for local supply chains.
Orders were collected by means of
social media from various neighbourhoods and relayed to the women who continued
to produce from their homes in the village.
This project provided a source of
income to the women, during these uncertain times and also used their sewing
skills perfectly. The network of production that had already been established
for cloth bag production, worked very well to supply reusable cotton face
covers.
The womens groups in the
village of Ahwalwadi stepped forward to make reusable cotton face covers to
supply to hospitals, industries and residential neighbourhoods early during the
Covid crisis in Pune. With a start from the KEM hospital the women, went on to
make several thousand face covers using a double layer medium thick cotton
fabric, or a three layer soft cotton fabric.
As the demand for the reusable cotton face masks increased, after the government of India endorsed the idea, we found that we were getting many many requests for the masks, we invited several other NGOs in Pune city who had also begun production to come together in a collective, so that we could balance supply and demand, and we started forwarding orders to each of these NGOs.
The eCoexist team coordinated the marketing of the masks to ensure that each of these NGOs recieved enough orders
for their women.
The eCoexist team responded to the COVID crisis in Pune, early during the lockdown period when our womens groups stepped forward to start a production of reusable cotton masks. As our first masks started to reach the public, and soon after the Government of India endorsed the use of reusable cotton masks, the demand for these masks shot up tremendously. To ensure that the citizens of Pune received the cotton masks they required as soon as possible, eCoexist invited several NGOs to collaborate with us and form a collective.
While the eCoexist women in the village of Ahwalwadi continued their production, we also started to invite large orders from hospitals, industry and residential groups and started to forward and share these orders with the NGOS in the collective, all of whom had already started producing similar masks. Following the DIY poster we had created we also helped the NGOs refine their designs to come to a standard. The collective collaborated on the sourcing of raw materials and helped each other to market and deliver masks as needed.
The following is the list of NGOs who came together with a brief introduction to them and contact details:
Material used and number of layers:
Cotton: 100%, 2 layers
Labour paid to women per.mask: Rs. 5 including cutting, Rs. 4 excluding
cutting.
Location of production : Karvenagar
Locations you can deliver to : Sinhgad road, Warje, Kothrud, Aundh, Pashan,
Baner, Peth area, Ravet
Regn number: U74900PN2014NPL153113
Bank details
Bank Name- State Bank of India.
Branch- Karve nagar, Pune
Account no. – 34537729509
IFSC – SBIN0013530
Google Pay: 7588065205 (choose SBI)
Contact person: Dr Rajesh Manerikar
Phone: +91 7588065205
Material used and number of
layers: Fine cotton with two layers
Labour paid to women per.mask: Rs 10/mask
Location of production : Paud, Mulshi
Locations you can deliver to: All of Pune
Name: Anubhuti Social Empowerment and Educational Foundation
Regn number: U74999PN2016NPL164861
Account Num: 31710200000415 (CURRENT)
Bank Name: Bank of Baroda, Kalyani Nagar
IFSC: BARB0KALPUN
Contact person: Harsha Joshi
Phone: +91 9049871454
Material used:100% cotton ( poplin)
material use
Number of layers : Two
Labour paid to women: Rs 5 per mask
Location… Dhayari
Pune city, Bombay, Panvel, Mhaswad,
Satara. Thane, Taloje.
Manndeshi Foundation
Account number., 48410010003599.
IDBI Bank Ltd.
IFSC Code. IBKL0000484
Contact : Anita Salvi
Phone: +91 95278 18737
Material
used and number of layers: 3 layer Cotton mask
Labour
paid to women per mask: Rs 3/- per mask
Location
of production: Hired Udyogita ‘gala’ in Miraj
Locations
you can deliver to: Miraj, Sangli, Ichalkaranji, Kolhapur, Pune etc (Permission
required during lockdown)
Name of the Bank: Sangli Dist. Central Co-op Bank Ltd, Sangli
Branch: Market Yard, Miraj
A/c Name: Udyogita Mahila Swayam Rojgar Sahakari Sanstha Miraj
A/c No.: 06005080000404
IFSC Code: IBLK0487SDC
Registration No: SAN/MRJ/GNL/0/480
Contact Details: 8600507570/9689863410/9673740749
Email ID: [email protected]
