Eric, volunteer, We fight COVID-19 together

Eric, wants to share some words with us.

“I moved to Australia in 2019, with my 5-year-old daughter and my wife, who is a nurse. We began noticing some strange pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, in December last year. The disease symptoms resembled SARS.

When I was talking with other parents at a birthday party in mid-January, nobody believed this mysterious new virus could spread to Australia and all over the world. Everyone pretended to listen, however, they faces expressed their disagreement. They claimed that I was over-reacting and said the culture and environment here is different to Hong Kong. They could not have been more wrong.

When the rapidly escalating outbreak spread to Australia, my wife had been told not to wear a face mask in the hospital. We had a loss of almost 300 lives in the 2003 SARS battle in Hong Kong, with many of these sacrificed, being frontline and hospital workers. While the coronavirus is not nearly as deadly as SARS, it is incredibly infectious. The nurses here did not seem to understand. Not only in regards to the importance of mask-wearing, but they also refused her suggestion of extra preventative measures. Since then, we knew we had to find a way to well prepare for this virus battle.

I have since shared lots of useful links about mask-wearing to protect against the virus, in an attempt to educate the people. Nobody seemed to take it seriously. When I heard about this volunteer group (Hong Kong Masks Australia), I knew that I was not alone. The founder of the group, Olivia, and the volunteers have greatly impressed me. They have showed inspiring solidarity, helping the community, especially the elderly and vulnerable.

I have kept myself busy making fabric masks for the people around me and in my local community. Although I couldn't contribute much to the HKMA giveaway project, we are doing the same good things to help our community. I wish I could help a little bit more on delivering masks to those in need, however, the lock-down of the city has its restricted me.

I enjoyed sharing ideas with the group and I feel like we are an army, fighting against the virus together. All volunteers joining the sewing team are providing the masks at their own cost as well as contributing their time making all these beautiful masks. Why did I spend money on this? The virus battle is not just about me, it's about everybody. No one can win this battle alone. I am proud to be part of the team.”

Thank you Eric for sharing his experience to us. Some of our clients have asked what our project's goal is and what are we hoping to gain by giving? Eric has answered the question very well. The virus battle is not just about me, it's about everybody. No one can win this battle alone.