VOLUNTEERS. Students at the University of the Philippines Visayas, stranded in their dormitories due to enhanced community quarantine, volunteer to make alternative face shields for Iloilo health workers. The students have so far distributed around 300 face shields to the hospitals in Iloilo, Adrian Camposagrado, University of Student Council chair, said on Friday (March 20, 2020). (PNA photos courtesy of Adrian Camposagrado and Hannah Labrador)
ILOILO CITY – Students at the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) have initiated to mass-produce improvised face shields to augment those used by health professionals to prevent contracting the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Students at UPV-Miagao and UPV-Iloilo City campuses stranded in their dormitories due to the enhanced community quarantine were mobilized through the University Students Council (USC) on Wednesday.
“We have already produced around 1, 500 face shields since we started,” Adrian Camposagrado, USC chair, said in a phone interview on Friday.
The students got the prototype of the alternative face shields from a health professional at Iloilo Mission Hospital.
One of the students, Hannah Labrador, whose mother is working at the said hospital has tapped the UPV-USC to make the face shields.
“We secured a donation from the Philippine College of Physicians-Visayas Cluster then we have started receiving donations from private individuals like doctors,” he said.
He said the students have so far distributed around 300 face shields to the hospitals in Iloilo.
They target to provide protective equipment to the Western Visayas Sanitarium, which is being considered by the government to handle Covid-19 cases in Panay island.
They will also try to equip the frontliners in all the community hospitals.
Camposagrado said the group will continue to make the face shields until the situation normalizes.
The students are calling for donations of acetate sheets, Velcro straps, craft foam, double-sided tapes, adhesives, staples and staplers, and PVC covers.
These can be coursed through Labrador and or dropped off at the UPV-Iloilo City Campus Infante gate.
For those in the Miagao area, they can send their donations to Adrian Camposagrado at UP Visayas Box.
“We are calling the attention of everybody that our frontliners also have needs. They are risking their lives in facing our patients and we need to return the favor to them,” Camposagrado said. (PNA)
