Written by Ardi
At this point of time, We as a community need to come together and work alongside each other to overcome the pandemic that we are going through. Some of our local companies have started and took initiatives to help the health care system and provide necessities for the nurses and doctors to stay safe while treating the patients.
The Biji-biji Initiative (comprised of Me.reka, Taylor’s University and Taylor’s University Me.reka Makerspace (TUMM)) are coming together to create face shields that are used along with N95 or surgical masks by hospital staff for full-face protection. It is estimated that 40,000 units are needed for each hospital every month.
For creating the face-shields, 3d printers and laser cut machines are used to create these face shields and they are currently being produced at these 4 locations through KL and Johor:
- ME.REKA, Publika
- Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus
- Spectrum Laser Studio, Kepong
- Admart Solutions, Muar, Johor
The target is to use up to 10 machines around KL & Selangor area and 10 more across Malaysia to be able to increase the speed and the quantity of the production of those face-shields.
If you have access to any of the machines, there are open source instruction that you can use:
There are other ways that you can help:
- Help to provide direct contacts of face shield manufacturers that we can source face shields from.
- Provide a laser engraver/laser cutter / 3D printers / CNC Milling / CNC or production facility that can help with production.
- Have contacts with plastic mold makers who can mobilize to create large scale mask holders immediately.
- Provide direct contacts of those who can provide/supply 0.2mm transparent A4 plastic sheets. Me.reka needs 30,000 pieces over the next week.
- Provide direct contacts of those who can provide/supply 4mm – 8mm acrylic sheets. Me.reka needs 190 pieces of (4ft x 8ft) over the next week.
- Connect them to a frontline organization/coordinator in need of face shields (hospitals,
clinics, police force, etc)
- Public and corporate cash donations are welcomed, this can be done by purchasing the
materials directly and sending it over to the production centers, or transferring the money over to them to purchase the materials.
All funds received will be disclosed publicly and accounted for. Please make a public post of all funds transferred into the account, and tag the Biji-biji Initiative Facebook page and email to finance@biji-biji.com.
The company has incurred RM5,000 of their personal money to get the first 2,000 pieces going, any help and support is greatly appreciated. As an accredited Social Enterprise, they are able to offer Corporate Tax Deductions for these donations. Contact Lee Kar Zhing (+6012 2908877) for more details on this.
- Bank: Alliance Bank
- Account No: 140820011062492
- Account Name: Biji Biji Design Sdn Bhd
- Me.reka is not taking any public volunteers to help manufacture the products, to ensure the production is optimized and there is no further risk of spreading the virus.
- Any other partnership proposals are welcomed.
If you want to make donations, check the link Here.100% of the donation will be utilized for the materials and logistics of this campaign. All labour & production costs for the face shield will be borne by their production partners.
If you are able to assist, you can send a WhatsApp message to these contacts:
Juliana: +6014 366 6286
Ambika: +6014 925 7203
