Academic News
During the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to our country’s successful “mask diplomacy,” the Center for Media and Social Impact of National Central University (NCU) and Taipei Awakening Association co-organized the “Handmade Masks International Workshop.” They invited nonprofit organizations in Nepal, including Women Development Advocacy Center, Higher Ground, Upcycle Nepal Pvt. Ltd., Antidote, and Himalaya Climate Initiative, and taught Nepali women via video-conferencing how to make cloth face masks in order to support some medically underserved countries and regions such as Nepal to weather the COVID-19 storm.
Dr. Chien-Wen Shen, Director of the Center for Media and Social Impact of NCU, undertook the preparation, contact, international communication, and hosted the workshop. Meanwhile, members from Taipei Awakening Association picked up their expertise; tailors starting a second career shared online the sewing techniques, teaching the Nepali women to make two-way cloth masks with small goods in their daily life. A two-way mask can be used as either a face mask or a mask cover. During the quarantine, the Nepali could make use of their time to undertake the mission of epidemic prevention.
The Nepali women demonstrated their works via video chats; those were their first handmade two-way cloth masks. They expected to share with friends the joyful experience and to create a safe and self-protective environment where they could overcome such adversity of the quarantine and shortage of masks.
