KOTA KINABALU: Architect and designer Tressie Yap is known as a mediator who helps her community earn an income through her designs.
This time, the Sabahan is working with Borneo Ecotourism Solutions and Technologies (Best Society) to share ideas and skills to make commercial face masks.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has updated its advice on wearing face mask. In areas of widespread transmission, it said, people should wear face mask in public areas like public transport and shops, where social distancing is difficult.
Reusable face mask can be used-- if single-use face mask is not available-- but it needs to have three layers of different fabrics.
This however, does not negate social distancing and hand hygiene, among other measures found effective in curbing virus transmission.
Yap said the mask-- which is washable and reusable-- can be used for a longer time. It would also be cheaper as the ceiling price for a single-use mask is RM1.50.
"I have worked with Best Society before and recently, we have agreed to continue the face mask project with its members.
"My strength is more on design and skill transfer, so the production part has to be done by the community," she told the New Straits Times.
The founder of Upcycled Shack, who has been advocating turning trash into treasure, will also help source off-cut fabrics for the project.
Yap added the leftover textile-- usually less than a metre per roll—is cheaper.
The face mask, she said, would have wires not only on the nose bridge but around the mouth too.
Those wires would create space between the face and the mask so that the wearer can converse clearly and comfortably.
"Best Society is a well-established platform and its target market is foreign customers and corporations who buy as part of their corporate social responsibility initiative," she said.