Resilience-Building, One Mask at a Time

Community members in the village of Kampara in Odisha were facing shortage of masks amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. SEWA’s digital sakhi, Jyotirmayee Dash, whose livelihood had been badly affected due to the lockdown, saw this as an opportunity of alternate income. She searched the techniques to make a mask on YouTube and was assisted by her husband in procuring the raw materials from a nearby village to stitch the masks. The cotton was dipped into hot water to create sanitized masks, which Jyotirmayee sold at a price of 20 rupees as compared to the market price of 50 bucks. Jyotirmayee was able to stitch 50 masks for the trial phase. To maintain the health standards of the society, she will continue to stitch more such masks along with SEWA.