A hundred masks a day: Filipina grandmother makes free face masks for ash-stricken community

Record ID: 1453309

  • Title: A hundred masks a day: Filipina grandmother makes free face masks for ash-stricken community
  • Date: 16th January 2020
  • Summary: BATANGAS, PHILIPPINES (JANUARY 16, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ROSALINA MANTUANO MAKING FACE MASKS HUNDREDS OF FACE MASKS ON DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) 61-YEAR-OLD SEAMSTRESS ROSALINA MANTUANO, SAYING: "I've been a seamstress for many years already. Now that a calamity like this hit us, I really wanted to help." MANTUANO SEWING MANTUANO WITH HER SEWING MACHINE VARIOUS OF MANTUANO ARRANGING FACE MASKS (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) SEAMSTRESS ROSALINA MANTUANO, SAYING: "As a seamstress, I thought, what if I made my own masks and give them away for free to those affected? That what I did. I had a lot of extra cloth, I made masks, and I gave them away to those who needed them." VARIOUS OF FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS WEARING FACE MASKS (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) NEIGHBOUR REMEDIOS GUEVARRA, SAYING: "A lot of people here needed face masks, supplies were sold out and others were very expensive. What Rosalina did, since she couldn't afford financial donations, was to use her extra cloth to help others." VARIOUS OF MANTUANO ARRANGING FACE MASKS
  • Embargoed: 30th January 2020 11:09
  • Keywords: Taal Volcano ash face masks seamstress
  • Location: BATANGAS, PHILIPPINES
  • City: BATANGAS, PHILIPPINES
  • Country: Philippines
  • Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Earthquakes/Volcanoes/Tsunami
  • Reuters ID: LVA001BWF7MFB
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: An elderly seamstress sewing hundreds of protective masks from her small workshop to donate to evacuees displaced by a restive volcano south of the capital Manila.
    Rosalina Mantuano said she wanted to help people scrambling to find ways to protect themselves from hazardous ashfall brought by a steam-driven eruption of Taal Volcano on Sunday (January 12).
    "I've been a seamstress for many years already. Now that a calamity like this hit us, I really wanted to help," she said the 61-year-old.
    Mantuano originally used leftover cloth to make a hundred masks for her neighbours and friends in the southern city of Lipa in Batangas Province, just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Taal Volcano that has been spewing ash and hurling marble-sized rocks for days, sending more than 57,000 rushing into evacuation centres.
    When people heard about her offer, cloth donations poured in, giving her more material to make more colourful masks.
    Her son-in-law, a member of a motorcycle riders' group, delivers food and the home-made masks to evacuation centres.
    She has made more than 400 masks, and says would keep on sewing more for people in need.
    (Production: Adrian Portugal, Peter Blaza)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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