The Healing Art Missions April team trip to Haiti was canceled due to an increase in kidnapping and violence in February and March, as well as the Covid-19 Pandemic. So, we watch from a distance as Dr. Jacques and the clinic staff do their best to keep the spread of the virus from overrunning the community.
Here at home in Granville, Ohio, we are isolating as much as possible to avoid the spread of Covid-19 ourselves. About a week ago we were hearing from our friends in the medical community about the severe shortage of N95 face masks to help protect working medical professionals. So, we dug out some fabric previously purchased to make into privacy curtains for the midwives delivery room at the HAM clinic in Dumay. We couldn’t get it to Haiti, so why not sew a few face masks? Masks sewn with a cotton mix fabric offer less protection from the virus than N95 or commercial surgical facemasks, but they provide more protection from the virus than having nothing covering your face, and they do decrease the wearers ability to spread the virus to others.
These home-made masks are definitely not the solution to protect health care workers on the front lines and hopefully commercially made N95 quality masks will be available to them soon. But what about other front-line workers providing Essential Services, those at local pharmacies, grocery stores and food service businesses who continue to come in contact with the general public every day? Shouldn’t they be wearing face masks while working to protect themselves and others? Remember that 80% of those infected with COVID 19 have mild, or even no symptoms, and the incubation period during which time you can pass the disease to others is 14+ days. Yes, all of these front-line, essential services workers should be wearing a face mask. Furthermore, we should all be wearing face masks, or at least a bandana over our faces, whenever we are in public places interacting with people or contaminated surfaces.
We are now working with a community collective of about 20 friends and neighbors to sew 65 yards of Amy Butler Fabric, generously donated by the fabric designer herself, to supply our local Ross Market with 200 masks for their staff. Following the completion of that order we plan to continue to make and provide masks to other front-line workers in the community.
At Healing Art Missions, we hope everyone can find their own way to help slow the spread of COVID 19 and help to stop this pandemic from taking the lives of loved ones. Social Distancing, washing your hands, wearing a mask in public (when you must go out), and paying close attention to what the Public Health professionals in your area are saying.