Syria’s White Helmets awarded £1.17m to make PPE

Syria’s White Helmets awarded £1.17m to make PPE

Syria's White Helmets, who rescue victims from the rubble of airstrikes, have added making personal protective equipment to their efforts saving lives in areas of the country outside Bashar al-Assad's control.The civil defence service's uniform-making unit has recently pivoted to manufacturing PPE with the help of a £1.17m award from a nonprofit organisation funded by the UK, US, Canadian and Dutch governments.The local facility has already produced more than 2m masks, as well as protective gowns and face shields, and is handling the safe disposal of used PPE for north-west Syria's vulnerable population of more than 3 million people.“The Covid-19 pandemic was the most difficult challenge the White Helmets faced in 2020. We witnessed the spread of the virus in north-western Syria among humanitarian workers and medical personnel while the global pandemic made cross-borders logistics almost impossible,” said Munir Mustafa, the White Helmets' deputy general manager for humanitarian affairs.While doctors and humanitarian workers in Syria are still working at great personal risk to respond to and treat the disease, with the help of Creating Hope in Conflict: a Humanitarian Grand Challenge, the White Helmets have been able to scale up community efforts to keep people safe from coronavirus.“Our volunteers and