The Department of Trade and Industry-Export Marketing Bureau lauded a local personal protective equipment maker for spearheading the PPE Bayanihan Project for healthcare frontliners.
Since the country has been under quarantine, all but essential businesses were closed, including leather goods manufacturer The Leather Collection.
The company, availing business matching services from the DTI-Export Marketing Bureau, was already exporting its products. They had to shut down operations due to the covid-19 pandemic. Instead of being discouraged, TLC chairman Federico Sevilla Jr. and CEO Yolanda Sevilla used the time to spearhead the PPE Bayanihan Project for healthcare frontliners.
To date, they have donated more than 15,000 PPE units (face shields, isolation gowns and jumpsuits) to 82 hospitals, rural health units and health centers in Metro Manila, Laguna, Batangas, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Antique, Quezon, Leyte and Bataan.
The PPE Bayanihan Project began when the Fashion Design and Merchandising School of the College of St. Benilde asked for materials to make PPEs. TLC gave water-resistant lining material and Benilde FDM acknowledged their donations in a Facebook post.
A friend of the Sevillas heard of their donation and donated P100,000 seed money to fund the project. Another donated rolls of water-resistant material. A third called to say he had a network of home-based sewers in Bulacan who could make the PPEs.
With all these elements in place, the PPE Bayanihan Project was launched. Its objective is to provide health care workers with PPEs as the demand for these items was high and the supply scarce. PPEs are very important to protect the health of the medical workers and prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
More friends and friends of friends got into the bandwagon—donating and soliciting donations, vetting requests for donations from hospitals, rural health units, health centers and healthcare workers.
TLC functioned as the operations center—receiving and accounting for donations of money and materials; sourcing, qualifying and repurposing materials; product research and design; prototyping and approval of prototypes by anesthesiologists; coordinating production; receiving and dispatching finished goods which included face shields, isolation gowns and coveralls or jumpsuits.
The PPE Bayanihan Project not only helped protect the frontliners but also allowed the Sevillas to leverage their experience in manufacturing; allowed volunteers to help stem the tide of contagion; and provided livelihood to home-based sewers in Guiguinto and Baliuag, Bulacan.
