Afghan artist produces 500 free masks per day

KABUL (Agencies): An amateur artist in the Afghan capital, Kabul, is sewing masks and donating them to people in a bid to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Amanullah Kaliwaal, 30, lives in Kabul, where he gets up every morning to produce face masks using his small sewing machine. Masks and protective clothing are in short supply in Afghanistan, which has been suffering from a lack of medical care after four decades of war and crisis.

Kaliwaal produces up to 500 masks each day and donates them to people who can hardly afford to invest in personnel hygiene. So far, he has nearly sewed a total of 5,000 masks.

After the coronavirus outbreak was reported in Kabul, Kaliwaal visited several stores to buy masks and distribute them to people. However, he found that there weren’t enough, so he began making his own.

With the increase of Covid-19 cases in Afghanistan, the prices of masks, hand sanitizer, and food supplies have sky-rocketed. According to Kaliwaal, producing 100 masks only costs him 2.6 dollars and, in turn, he is able to help people to protect themselves.

“I enjoy helping people this way,” he said.

Overall, Afghanistan has recorded 784 coronavirus cases and 26 deaths. The real numbers could be higher, however, as the capacity for testing still remains low with only about 5,000 tests carried out so far.