Thanks to non-profit initiative UbuntuCare, more than 300,000 cloth masks have been distributed to vulnerable communities throughout the Western Cape. The initiative is a public-private partnership of The Health Foundation South Africa, Western Cape Government Department of Health through its WoW! (WesternCape on Wellness) programme, Infection Control Africa Network, clothing manufacturer Coconut Jazz, and Project Last Mile.
Members of the Witzenberg community in the Cape Winelands District show their gratitude for the recent donation of UbuntuCare cloth masks.
UbuntuCare gives women in impoverished areas the opportunity to produce masks and earn an income to support their families. The project is ongoing, and well over 400,000 masks will have been manufactured by mid-January. The initiative was born at the start of lockdown at which point only a handful of seamstresses from Elsies River, Grabouw and Philippi had been employed. The women received training on how to make cloth masks