As Sudan’s collapsed healthcare braces for COVID-19 and a governance crisis unfolds alongside the pandemic, a resourceful spirit adapts to avoid catastrophic outcomes. Providing protective gear whilst generating income to the underprivileged, SALAM strives to keep communities safe.
‘SALAM’s idea and the initiative to produce affordable masks came after the shortage in the availability and affordability of face masks in the country, there’s a huge demand for face masks in Sudan, even for health professionals,’ said Safiyah Abdulrahman Alfadni, founder of SALAM. ‘It’s a real gap that we’re serving’.
Alfadni is an entrepreneur from Omdurman and a budding medical doctor who graduated from Ahfad University for Women (AUW). But lately, her working routine has taken a backseat to a new mission: leading a team of youth to fuel a cutting edge enterprise, which manufactures affordable face masks for national distribution, a protective measure against the novel coronavirus that has crept into Sudan in March 2020.
If Alfadni is astonished by the fact that she’s gone from being a doctor to leading an enterprise in a few months, she shows no sign of it. The transition started innocuously. Early in March 2020, when Sudan’s first COVID-19 case was reported, as the country’s middle class rushed to the supermarkets, the residents of Darfur, given their average wage (the equivalent of around USD2 a day), didn’t have that option of stockpiling goods. Unavailable masks however, would not be the only force providing fertile soil for COVID-19 to spread through Darfur unchecked, like in many areas in Sudan, Darfur’s natural construct of a communal culture would simultaneously contribute and social distancing would be utterly unnatural to embrace. The steady fracture of Darfur’s public health nagged at Alfadni’s heart; faced with this looming threat, she strived for solutions to stop the hemorrhage.
Within weeks, through determined efforts, what began as an idea blossomed into a jubilant team of fellow creatives and leaders; students and fresh graduates of the fields medicine, engineering, and finance. Soon, “Salam”, meaning “wellbeing” in Arabic, would become Sudan’s first face-mask producing social enterprise.
Through the team’s successful attempts to mobilise partners such as the German Agency for International Cooperation, SALAM was able to produce 500,000 face masks to be distributed in the region of Darfur; and to date have provided the largest distribution in the area. SALAM’s social media manager, Eman Osama, walks us through SALAM’s progress, she makes an offhand comment about the enterprise’s motto, and although what she says neatly folds my thoughts into shape, it also speaks to a much wider moment of global societal reckoning: “Together,” she says, “We Can”.
Not taking a day off since the first case of COVID-19 emerged in March 2020, SALAM continues to donate their stockpiles and contribute to local communities in search for masks amid the shortage. Recently, SALAM has worked with Takafulna under DAL engineering and has distributed face masks to Students sitting for their Grade 8 exams in 200 centers.
So far, almost a million masks have been handed out in small batches by SALAM and its project partners, most of which have been distributed for free to the internally displaced and those of low socioeconomic status. Along with SALAM’s local social development partners like DAL and 249 startup, SALAM plans to make another one million masks over the coming months.
‘Our mask production had been a process of trial and error,’ Alfadni explained. ‘The tests and trials were conducted by the Ministry of health, as they checked our masks for particle filters, fluid resistance and other quality specifications’.
‘SALAM’s masks are produced under certain quality control measures following the WHO’s guidelines for protective masks,’ Alfadni tells us. ‘They are reusable, one of the most affordable face masks with high quality, and have received good customer feedback. With an elastic bandage for flexibility and fixation, SALAM’s masks are soft and comfortable.’
SALAM’s masks are made of three layers from three different fabrics:
As SALAM takes off in race to contain the spread of COVID-19, it gives tailors going through financial hardships and formerly incarcerated women short-term victories. Offering them a legitimate job in tailoring the face masks, SALAM allows vulnerable women and men to have a foothold in the world’s economy and reclaim a power they have had all along.
‘This work is important for us, because in a situation where people have no other means of income during the lockdown, mask-making allows tailors to continue to support their families and put food on the table every day,’ said Alfadni.
Walk into SALAM’s Atelier in Omdurman, which is a warm, comfortable and open working space. You’ll find the wallpapers coloured purple and green, surrounding almost 300 trained tailors wearing masks and gloves, operating on their crafts, metres apart. There, you’ll meet a local female tailor, sewing together two simple pieces of cotton lining, she will tell you, ‘SALAM’s masks are special, simply, because they are made with love, from mothers like her who want to see everybody safe,’ said Alfadni.
SALAM’s move, seen as a vital additional measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19, has changed the narrative of Sudan, proving the country can grapple with its own national challenges as it takes destiny into its own hands, this time without seeking solutions from the developed world as the pandemic rages on, this time forcing a larger meaning out of the tragedy we call COVID-19.
As the enterprise introduces to us products under the trademark ‘Made in Sudan’, it shores up the belief that manufacturing potential in Sudan can be unlocked. SALAM is changing the narrative of Sudan, proving the country can grapple with its own national challenges as it takes destiny into its own hands. Without seeking solutions from the developed world as the pandemic rages on, Salam forces a larger meaning out of the tragedy we call COVID-19.
As the habits of Sudan’s generations play out beneath the pandemic and the swirling sand, SALAM’s determination teaches us, that we might be locked into a world not of our own making, but we still have a claim on how it is shaped. We, still have responsibilities.
For more information or to support the initiative, visit SALAM Social Enterprise Facebook page.
Rahba El Amin is a medical student at the University of Khartoum, trying to do her little bits of good everywhere she goes. She is a blogger, book-worm, aspiring writer, photographer and human rights activist — who can’t live without shai bei laban.
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