After her Muslim colleagues told Ms Neo Su Yin, 40, that they had to visit the restroom to remove the surgical masks they wore under their tudung whenever they had a meal, she devised a solution.
Ms Neo, who is head of post and parcel delivery and customer experience at Singapore Post (SingPost), knitted eight mask-strap extenders that go over the outside of the tudung, allowing the wearer to remove the mask easily.
She launched into the project at the start of April and then passed them to her colleagues at SingPost’s Jurong delivery centre, who now find getting their face masks on and off less awkward.
To make more mask straps for SingPost employees and others in essential services, Ms Neo created a Facebook group called Project Co-Knit with Love.
One colleague, mail sorter Salbiah Mansir, 59, said that she was thankful for the strap, as it was uncomfortable and difficult to wear a mask beneath her tudung.
After creating the Facebook group, Ms Neo and her friends started to promote it on their personal Facebook accounts to urge more people to knit the straps.
Within the next three days, five or six volunteers offered to knit more of the mask straps. The group had sewn almost 100 mask straps as of Wednesday.
Ms Neo plans to pass more straps to friends who are in the medical and food-and-beverage sectors, so that they can distribute them to those who work in essential roles.
The straps will either be mailed to her friend’s houses or delivered contactless by the team.
Ms Neo has also made tutorial videos on how to knit the mask straps, uploaded onto the Facebook page to guide the other volunteers.
Read more here.
Source: TODAYOnline, 15 April 2020