ILIGAN CITY, Mar 26 (PIA) -- Volunteers from Motivation Philippines in cooperation with the Philippine Red Cross, this city, have been mass-producing 'do-it-yourself' (DIY) face shields to be distributed to COVID-19 frontliners.

Dubbed as the "One Thousand Five Hundred Project," these volunteers plan to make 1,500 pieces of improvised health protection shields.

Al Azanereeh Madale, volunteer nurse and founder of Motivation Philippines, said around 300 face shields were already handed-out to front liners.

"Nag-decide kami na gawin namin ito as soon as possible because we feel na may urgency. We also wanted to make our frontliners feel na meron ding mga taong concerned sa kanila," Madale said.

["We decided to do this as soon as possible because we felt the urgency. We also wanted our frontliners to feel that there are people who cared for them."]

With enough money from their pockets and a few creative and resourceful members, Madale and his team designed safe, low-cost and durable protection from the highly-infectious COVID-19 disease.

"We have researched, pinag-aralan namin kung ano 'yong mga acceptable materials, we even started before the actual lockdown (enhanced community quarantine) ng city," he added.

["We did our research, we studied what are those accepted materials, and even started before the actual lockdown (enhanced community quarantine) of the city."]

Moreover, the team mapped a distribution scheme on a 'first come first serve' basis except for health workers and security forces who are at risk.

The team is currently on its 876th face shield considering the budget, manpower, and scarcity of raw materials.

Moving forward, the team wanted to extend their help to the private sectors such as food and beverage workers, and even bankers.

"Sa mga frontliners, gusto po namin ipahayag sa inyo na hindi po kayo nag-iisa sa laban na ito. Sana naparamdam namin sa inyo na kami rin po ay nag-aalala kasi may mga pamilya din po kayong inuuwian," Madale consoled.

["To our front liners, we wanted you to know that you are not alone in this battle. Hopefully, you also felt our concern to you because we know that you all have families at home."] (CLV/ PIA ICIC)