Unused sewing machines, the pandemic and the desire for redemption. Thus began the story of the Dagoretti Fashion & Design Center tailoring, born in the suburbs of Nairobi in 2006, and which thanks to Amref today offers job opportunities to twenty-five girls.
“We had old sewing machines at our disposal,” she explains Andrea Bollini, operator of Amref Health Africa in Kenya. “We then got in touch with the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Kenya, to define the standards of marketable PPE and we started the project.
At the moment, 25 people actively participate in the production of surgical masks in compliance with the rules of Medical Devices ».
From a distance, BB Style, handmade Afro-Italian fashion brand, managed by Bruno and Sonya, an Italian stylist and brand manager of Togolese origin and the Dagoretti Fashion & Design Center have come together with a common goal: to generate income and create jobs.
«Amref currently has a production capacity of twenty thousand masks and a hundred surgical gowns per month, with the ability to increase production based on demand », continues Bollini. «The hope is that distribution will also extend beyond national borders, reaching the entire African market, with the ambition of producing around 10 million items. In addition, the initiative supports young women and girls from informal settlements around Nairobi, involved in the production ».
Bruno and Sonya they accepted the challenge that would take them from Ferrara (virtually) to a difficult suburb of Nairobi, in Dagoretti. So they converted everyday textile work into the production of masks. And they do it with the utmost respect for the environment: mascherine yes, but zero waste, safe and implemented step by step through virtual technical assistance.
Sonya and Bruno have indeed provided their skills by recording videos describing the steps to produce the reusable masks; they made themselves available on the whatsapp group created ad hoc to answer any doubts about the execution of the product.
BBstyle shared the brand and the design of their reusable Samurai mask: a safe mask thanks to its three layers of fabric, washable even by hand at low temperatures and which also tries to reflect the African context in which it will be used. Once the production of reusable masks began, from July 2020 to today, there have been 4 thousand produced, then distributed to doctors in Kenya and South Sudan. While they have been over 1500 medical suits.
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