Terengganu Malaysian Relief Agency (MRA) and Terengganu State Health Department have partnered with Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Terengganu campus, Malaysia on a ‘Do it Yourself‘ (DIY) face shield project. The Terengganu MRA initiated this collaboration, by inviting Terengganu UiTM students to do their share for society by creating DIY face shield for the Ministry of Health (MOH) to be used by the frontline health workers. Terengganu MRA representative, Ms Syafiqah handed over the DIY face shield material to 32 students who responded to the Terengganu DIY MRA challenge to produce 1000 pieces of face shields within three days. Due to lack of resources, mainly sponge, students could only manage to finish 633 pieces within the stipulated three days and these were distributed to the Terengganu State Health Department on 28th March 2020 for the usage of frontliners in the state. However, by the first week of April, UiTM Terengganu managed to complete another 3500 pieces of DIY face shields, where 2000 pieces were distributed to the state government hospital, while another 1500 pieces were sent to two health centers in the state.
This is the first social activity by the UiTM Terengganu students to help frontline health workers. Many other UiTM lecturers and students from other campuses in Malaysia have been doing their share for the health frontliners by producing hand sanitizers and personal protective equipment (PPE). Some students exclaimed, “ this is a great experience for us and will remain in our memory for a long time for us to share with our future generation.”
The Rector of UiTM Terengganu, Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr Mazidah Puteh, said, “UiTM Terengganu will always support in any possible way to help Malaysia to fight COVID 19 and expressed her deepest gratitude and appreciation to all frontliners and UiTM staff who helped so far.” UiTM Terengganu Hotel was also identified as a quarantine center, and one of the UiTM colleges in the state campus (Dungun) became the center to house about 100 police personnel, the frontliners in Dungun, which was declared as an orange zone.
Ms Norhartini Binti Abdul Wahab, UiTM Kuala Terengganu Campus, Assistant College Resident Staff, said that “This is not just a face shield, it is a sign of our support for the frontline health workers”. The students proudly presented the face shield to the respected frontliners with a message :
“We hope the frontliners will be happy with this little help.Hats off! You are our hero, this is our small contribution. May our strength flow in your spirit, O COVID frontliners”.