Impact

Open Mask

As our society battles a new pandemic scenario, this project was developed with the purpose of creating an accessible solution for the community in terms of the production of protection masks during the Coronavirus crisis. For the first part of the project, a tutorial video was filmed to teach people how to make their own masks using bandanas and rubber bands. As for the second part, the project aims to share with the community a zero waste mask design, for those who already know how to sew.


In addition, after completing these steps, we want to take this mask production onto a bigger scale and distribute them in underprivileged areas of Porto Alegre. The results of this large scale production will be donated to people who are at-risk groups with the purpose of protecting them from this illness as it keeps spreading.


 


With the described actions in place, this project can contribute to society on two levels:



  1. Protect the most vulnerable part of the population during the peak of the pandemic in Brazil;

  2. As the project goes to a bigger scale, a new business opportunity is created for local seamstress to work and produce goods in a fair and sustainable system.


We donated 515 masks already to three different neighborhoods from 3 different brands. Our tutorial video have been seen more than 2,000 times on Instagram and we had 150 accesses on our DIY mask tutorial.


Right now our main need is to increase our reach. We ideate a website strategy that requires at least host services and tools to design and develop. If we could have some great contact with a big organization that wants to collaborate with us it would be amazing.