Senator Villar gives away cloth face masks made by women from Cavite

Senator Cynthia Villar is hitting two birds with one stone in her latest effort to help Filipinos amidst the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in the country. She is distributing face masks to all barangays in her home city of Las Piñas, which are sewn by a group of women in Cavite.

“We are helping prevent the spread of Covid-19 in our barangays, at the same time, we are able to provide a source of income for some women in Cavite, which as the rest of the country, is in enhanced community quarantine or lockdown”, said Senator Villar.

Prior to this, Senator Villar has distributed bottled drinking water, rice and other relief goods to the city’s barangays. Her family also provides the daily meals and temporary housing of frontliners of the Las Pinas General Hospital and Satellite Trauma Center.

A total of 4,400 cloth face masks will be done and distributed to 22 barangays in Las Piñas. The women who will sew them will be paid for the face masks. They will also be sewing PPE (personal protective equipment) Hazmat that will be donated to medical frontliners, out of the cloth materials donated by Barangay Treasurer Bridget Chiongbian of Forbes Park. Senator Villar will pay for the labor.

The same group of women from Dasmariñas, Cavite were tapped by Senator Villar to make bags out of the tarpaulins used for her campaign during the last elections. They are led by Christine Joy Ferrer of MXD Tailoring, who was just starting out her tailoring shop in the garage of the apartment she is renting when she was tapped by Villar.

Ferrer’s sewers are mothers who live in nearby communities. Ferrer earlier said she appreciates Villar for providing a source of additional income for mothers and small entrepreneurs like her.

According to Villar, sewing face masks is a perfect source of livelihood for the women since they can do it without leaving their homes or during the quarantine/lockdown period. “As you know, I have always been providing women livelihood projects to sustain them and augment their family’s income. During this health emergency, they really need sources of income, so that they will not be entirely dependent on relief goods,” said Sen. Villar.