Masks4all

The Hout Bay Masks4all was a labor of love by the community for the community. It started in late March, with a very small team of volunteers, lead by Candida Andrade, Hout Bay resident, and, by mid-July, it had donated close to 17,000 cloth masks mostly to the Imizamo Yethu and Hangberg residents. 

The Masks4all team consisted of amazing volunteers from Hout Bay three demographic areas of every age and race, from every background, gender and sexual orientation, and was generously supported by the larger community in Hout Bay and around the world. 

Some team members were paid a symbolic stipend amount per mask done in order to have electricity for sewing, feed the families, or to continue providing assistance to persons with disabilities. Many others contributed sewing, preparing educational materials, packing masks and driving around distributing fabrics and picking up masks without any pay. Masks ambassadors walked the streets of IY and Hangberg providing covid-education and distributing masks also without any pay. 

Residents generously donated fabrics and funds mainly through the HB Masks4all “Buy 1, Donate 3” program run by HB Wheeler’s and Sentinel pharmacies, donated 605 masks through “Buy 1, Donate 1” program run by the Organic Route shop, and one resident mobilized funds to purchase 575 masks and donate them to the HB Maks4all.

Family and friends in other parts of South Africa and around the world also generously donated to Masks4all crowdfunding campaign.

The expressions on the faces of those who received the masks and the countless messages of gratitude from the community kept the Maks4all volunteers inspired to do their best, one mask at a time. 

Inspiration also came from the goodness and amazingness of other volunteers on the frontline distributing food parcels, operating soup kitchens, and generously giving other forms of support in our “village”.