Leading By Example
After Malaysians were ordered to stay home to stem the spread of Covid-19, businesswoman Vivy Yusof knew she would not be content to sit around doing nothing. So she and her husband, Fadza Anuar, started looking for a way they could give back.
“It all started on social media when I saw the chairman of Universiti Teknologi Mara, Dato Sri Syed Zainal, donating portable air conditioners to hospitals. So I contacted him to ask for hospital contacts. From there, I got in touch with some volunteers and donated air conditioners, laptops, cash and food to sustain them through their work,” she says.
The chief creative officer of Fashionvalet and DUCK has become a vocal advocate for the welfare of frontliners, using her influence to highlight their plight and what can be done to assist them.
“At first I wanted to do this discreetly, because I didn’t want people to think I was showing off. But then I realised I should tell others about this to inspire them to help and keep the momentum going. After all, that’s what made me help in the first place: I saw someone else doing it,” she says.
When requests started flooding her inbox, she decided to take a more active role and galvanised her supporters into action. Together with the Islamic Medical Association of Malaysia’s Response and Relief Team, Fadza and Vivy put together a crowdfunding site to help the frontliners.
In just a week, her FV Covid-19 Support Fund raised over RM1 milion. The money has been used to purchase whatever the frontliners need, most recently fabrics for Malaysia’s fashion designers under MODA to sew PPE for the doctors and nurses.
Vivy says that she has been touched by the spirit of unity that brought together Malaysians in this time of need.
“I saw so much kindness from friends, local brands, followers and acquaintances— we got over 25,000 donors to the fund. It doesn’t matter whether it is a big sum or a small sum, everyone did what they could to help. So many celebrities helped, amazing people like Scha Alyahya and Marion Caunter even attached our fund page on their bio links. It humbled me to know how kind Malaysians can be,” she says.
In a show of solidarity, Malaysia’s biggest names in fashion came together to use their skills to sew PPE for medical frontliners in an initiative led by Malaysia Official Designers Association. The fashion community, including Radzuan Radziwill, Khoon Hooi, Celest Thoi, Alia Bastamam and their teams of seamstresses and volunteers, worked to cut fabrics and sew thousands of PPE items to meet the neverending demand from local hospitals.
Touched by the countless acts of kindness she’s seen, MODA president Melinda Looi posted an Instagram video in which she said, “I have so much emotion going on, I can cry anytime, but these are tears of happiness to see people coming together.”
She also mentioned intances of frontliners sending private messages “saying how grateful they feel that they are finally not wearing, you know, garbage bags, but gowns that are made by people of Malaysia.
It’s giving them a lot of encouragement, a lot of positive vibes, they feel loved.”
MODA has joined forces with Fashionvalet in a fund raising campaign to buy nonwoven hospital-standard materials. MODA is also working with the Islamic Medical Association of Malaysia, which will distribute the gowns to its network of hospitals.
Meeting the demand is a major challenge even with a host of designers and volunteers who are working non-stop, as the production is entirely home-based. In an effort to let the public know the stakes, Looi noted, “A consumption of 15,000 sets of PPE items is needed per week per hospital.”
Her call didn’t go unheeded as more and more people are coming forward to help in whatever way they can, whether by monetary donations or lending their much-needed skills.
Dr David Ho hopes to find a scientific solution to Covid-19.
In 1996, the worldfamous HIV researcher became the first doctor chosen specifically for his work on a disease as
Person of the Year, so it raised hopes to see him appear this March on the cover of
this time with the headline “The Cure Starts Here”.
Since February, Ho, who is the founder of the Aaron Diamond Aids Research Center and a professor at the Columbia University School of Medicine in the US, has been in charge of a research and development project on coronavirus medicine and antibodies.
Beyond his past contributions as the main inventor of the Aids cocktail combination therapy, Ho has spent nearly two decades conducting
The billionaire inventor James Dyson took just 10 days to design Covent, a new ventilator to help hospitals fight Covid-19
When British billionaire James Dyson relocated his global headquarters to Singapore last year, he made headlines for buying the most expensive penthouse in the country for S$73.8 million. Now, the inventor, who is best known for creating the Dyson brand’s cordless vacuum cleaners and heat-controlled hair dryers, has thrust Singapore back in the international spotlight—this time for making a much-needed contribution to humanity’s fight against the global coronavirus pandemic.
It began when British prime minister Boris Johnson phoned Dyson in March just as the Covid-19 crisis was unfolding in the UK. Dyson immediately sprang into action to build a new model of ventilator. As the coronavirus attacks the patient’s respiratory system, large numbers of this life-saving equipment are urgently needed around the world to assist patients who encounter complications that result in breathing difficulties.
“The UK government requested a design for a ventilator that was safe, effective, efficient in conserving oxygen, easy to use, bed-mounted, portable and not needing a fixed air supply,” said Dyson in a memo to staff that was shared with the media. “The core challenge was how to design and deliver a new, sophisticated medical product in volume and in an extremely short space of time.”
The idea was to use the company’s expertise in components such as digital motors, battery packs, airflow technology and Hepa filters, to build medical-grade ventilators.
Just 10 days after Johnson’s call, in collaboration with The Technology Partnership, a Cambridge-based group of science and innovation companies, Dyson unveiled the Covent prototype. This device is engineered to deliver high-quality, filtered air by harnessing Dyson’s air-purifying technology.
One key feature is that it has been designed to be portable so that it can be used in different settings, such as in field hospitals or during the transportation of patients. Most importantly, Covent “can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume”, Dyson said.
The British government has placed an order for 10,000 units. In addition, Dyson has also pledged to make another 5,000 machines for the international effort to treat coronavirus patients.
In Singapore, Dyson’s local operations, which include its global research and development hub and a manufacturing plant, are playing a key role in the construction of these new ventilators. The motors for the Covent machines are being produced by 300 robots that are running round the clock in Dyson’s Singapore Advanced Manufacturing facility in the Tuas industrial district. The completed motors will then be shipped to the UK.
“Hospitals are the front line in the war against Covid-19,” Dyson said, emphasising the importance of this production line. “As with any battle, there are many challenges to overcome, not least the availability of essential equipment which, in this case, means ventilators.”