Mask Production Workshop Fights Coronavirus, Poverty

NANNING, March 16 (Xinhua) — At 7 a.m., Mo Shikun, a villager in Rongan County, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, put on a face mask and headed for a local workshop on her electric bicycle.

Mo, 40, has been working for mask production since early February. She normally arrives at the workshop about 30 minutes in advance.

"I come to work earlier so that I can make more masks to help fight the coronavirus and earn more money for myself, " she said, noting that she can sew more than 1,000 masks a day.

Mo had been working in Guangzhou for years to raise her family before 2019. She came back to her hometown when she saw an opportunity to work near her village with the help of an anti-poverty project carried out by Guangxi and south China's Guangdong Province.

"The salary is lower than what I earned when I worked in Guangzhou, but now I have more time to take care of my family," she said, adding that her family got out of poverty in 2019, and the new job gives her hope for the future.

The workshop where Mo works belongs to Rongan Huixin Knitted Garment Co., Ltd. Headquartered in the region's Liuzhou City, the company focuses on kids' clothing and school uniform production.

"We have three workshops in different parts of the county and more than 80 employees, half of which are from poverty-stricken families," said Zhang Zhiyi, general manager of the company.

"Supply of face masks on the market is strained, the government hoped that we can produce masks to help fight the virus," Zhang said, noting that the equipment at the workshops needed just a little modification to fit mask production.

Despite the strict travel restrictions for epidemic control and prevention, most of the workers are local residents from nearby villages. They came back to work after they were issued health certificates and traffic permits by the local government.

"Another important factor is that Liuzhou has a strong industrial foundation, particularly the automobile industry," Zhang said, adding that the sound insulation cotton for automobiles has similar physical properties with non-woven fabrics for mask making.

"Government supplied us with the raw material and purchased the masks we have made. As of the end of February, we had produced more than half of a million masks," he said.

"We make our contributions to the fight against the coronavirus and guarantee our employees' income," he added.

(Source: Xinhua)