Status holders work hard to reduce mouth mask shortage

Dutch mouth mask factory opens in Arnhem

Producing 100,000 mouth masks every day for healthcare in the Netherlands is the goal of the Mouth Mask Factory, an initiative of Refugee Company. This week two machines arrive from China in Arnhem with which the factory will produce certified surgical mouth masks type IIR locally. People with a refugee background will make the mouth masks.

Local production
In order not to be dependent on factories on the other side of the world, Refugee Company has started to accelerate the establishment of a mouth mask factory. At the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, work has been going on for weeks to make as many mouth masks as possible available to Dutch care workers. They therefore support the plan to bring machines to the Netherlands for local production where possible.

Certified surgical 3-layer mouth masks
There are several different mouth masks. The FFP2 and FFP3 are especially suitable for healthcare personnel working with Corona patients. FFP1 are dust masks that you buy at the hardware store. The Mouth Mask Factory makes 3-ply surgical masks type IIR. The mouth masks are intended for essential occupations, including regular hospital care, home care, oral care and elderly care, among others.

Support for initiative
Because transport from China is not easy at the moment, KLM helped to get the machines and raw materials to the Netherlands as quickly as possible. Philips Foundation has provided the initiative with a loan to accelerate the opening of the factory in order to give as many people as possible access to quality mouth masks. In addition, the Philips Foundation linked Refugee Company to the supplier of raw materials for Philips’ vacuum cleaner business, which supplies essential filter material for the mouth masks.

The project also received support from lender Qredits in the form of a social credit of €250,000. André Dolsma, commercial director of Qredits: “We are proud that we can contribute to a social enterprise that can make a difference in these times. For social initiatives like this, which also create work experience places for refugees in the Netherlands, our social credit form fits perfectly.”

Arnhem
The Mouth Mask Factory will collaborate with labor development company Scalabor and will move into their premises in Arnhem. Cathelijne Bouwkamp, alderman of the municipality of Arnhem: “It’s great that there will be a factory in Arnhem producing mouth masks. It is of great importance that people working in care and support can do this with good protective equipment. Because of the good cooperation between our municipality and Refugee Company we were able to switch quickly and they managed to get this done in a very short time. It is great that in this way Arnhemmers with a refugee background can contribute to combating the corona crisis.”

For more information and orders, visit www.mondmaskerfabriek.nl