Keralite sews PPEs, gifts them to health workers
Hospital employee Abdul Jabbar makes over 1,230 masks, leggings, hoods
While many might have found it difficult to spend the long Eid holidays staying indoors in an effort to check the spread of Covid-19, an Indian expat in the UAE found it to be the most worthwhile break.
A Dubai hospital operation theatre assistant, Abdul Jabbar from Kerala set himself a target to stitch 100 masks, 41 pairs of leggings and 63 hoods for health care workers fighting Covid-19 during the Eid holidays.
He said he took one day to cut the material for these items, while he spent the rest of the four days on stitching them to perfection.
The Sharjah-based Jabbar has since mid-March stitched and gifted more than 1,230 pieces of such PPEs, including masks, shoe leggings and hood caps. This is in addition to the special hood caps with inbuilt face shields as well as several shoe covers he has made.
Initial motivation
Abdul Jabbar said he was initially motivated to make masks after he heard the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan urging people back home to stitch and donate masks.
“I felt it was a good suggestion and wanted to try and implement here,” said Jabbar, who himself is a Covid-19 warrior.
“It was not because our hospital was not supplying
It was not because our hospital was not supplying PPEs. No matter how big or small, every contribution matters at this time. So I thought of doing my bit.”
Abdul Jabbar | Dubai hospital assistant
PPEs. No matter how big or small, every contribution matters at the time of a pandemic. So I thought of doing my bit.”
With no training in tailoring, Jabbar decided to try his hand at making these PPEs with his experience in mending torn clothes for his wife and children.
“He is a master of many jobs that he has not been trained in,” said his wife Rahiyanath. “Long ago, he had tried to stitch dresses for us just by observing the readymade clothes. He did the same with masks and other PPEs also,” she said.
She said her husband dusted out her old sewing machine when the stay-home campaign began in the UAE.
Jabbar also found a sustainable and safe way of making these PPEs by using sterile, water proof sheets that cover sterile items in the operation theatre. He also employs plastic-nylon sheets used in gynaecology wards, he explained.
“These materials were being discarded earlier as they are only used to cover other items,” said Jabbar, who has now repurposed them.