News

By Danial Yusof

GOMBAK, 16 October 2020: To assist the frontline health workers, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) has taken the initiative to donate sets of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to the health workers at several hospitals in Sabah.

The PPE set is produced by the IIUM COVID-19 Sewing Brigade consisting of administrative staff, students and lecturers who have volunteered to sew the PPE. IIUM has an on-campus sewing workshop for classes and co-curricular activities and this provides advantages for IIUM to produce the PPE set.

The objective of this contribution is to help the frontline health workers in Sabah, where the number of cases recorded is high. In addition, this is also as a way to support the medical officers in Sabah hospitals. 

The PPE set programme started on 31 May, where only 40 sets of PPE was sent there by the students who returned to Sabah. A total of 20 sets of PPE were sent to Tawau Hospital and the remaining to the Likas Hospital.

On 9 June, IIUM COVID-19 Sewing Brigade collaborated with HanaFundMe, one of the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), and have managed to send 200 sets of PPE to Queen Elizabeth Kota Kinabalu Hospital with the assistance of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF).

A further 900 sets of PPE were sent on 9 October and 13 October respectively to three hospitals in Sabah. A total of 150 sets of PPE were sent to Likas Hospital, 250 sets to Tawau Hospital and 500 sets to Kota Kinabalu hospital. The assistance provided was delivered through two NGOs, Team Salam and Tawaukini.

Deputy Rector (Student Development and Community Engagement), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zulkifli Hasan said he hoped that with these contributions, they  can be of  help to the front liners and give them encouragement in carrying out their duties in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is hoped that this contribution will be a source of encouragement to the health workers in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic and it is also a sign of gratitude from IIUM citizens in particular, and as Malaysians in general for their contributions,” he said.

During the period, a total of 9000 sets of PPE were completed and distributed to the district health centres, medical centres, clinics and hospitals.

“For now, we are informed by IIUM COVID-19 Sewing Brigade that approximately 2000 sets of PPE have been completed and in the process of being sent out to clinics and hospitals near the campus for use of health workers if they need them,” he added.

IIUM COVID-19 Sewing Brigade and the project was established on the initiative of IIUM Academic Staff Association (ASA).

The PPE sewing project started last March, exactly a week after the movement control order (MCO) was announced, where there was a demand for PPEs as a result of a shortage of the equipment faced by hospitals in handling COVID-19 cases. ***

Source: https://news.iium.edu.my/?p=14...