Paying it Forward: Justine Upcycles Face Masks for her Host Community
Following up on our English classes, Project Phoenix documents how it worked closely with our fellow Justine Nde and our partner Caritas Cyprus, in Nicosia, to upcycle materials and stitch face masks for groups vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19. With an innovative approach dedicated by extenuating circumstances, we fundraised online and leveraged our networks to support Justine in her efforts to give back to her host community, have social impact and “pay it forward”. Tiziana Heck, our Research and Innovation Coordinator, and Hrishabh Sandilya, our Director for Development on the ground in Cyprus, weigh in on how we did this.
A few weeks ago, Justine, our fellow from Cameroon, who is currently applying for asylum in Cyprus, approached us with the idea of putting her years of experience as a seamstress to good use: to stitch face masks. She explained her great concern for vulnerable groups on the island, including her fellow asylum-seekers, the aged and others. Masks at that stage were either sold out across the island or too expensive, leaving the most vulnerable at risk. Justine was determined to volunteer her time and effort to produce and donate face masks to groups at risk and wanted our support.
Michael Goecken, our Founder, had an initial chat with Justine which revealed a complicated situation on the ground because Cyprus had gone into lockdown and not only were a lot of shops closed but people were only allowed to leave the house once a day.
Michael:
“As an organisation, we seek to promote those who have social impact in mind. We were concerned about getting materials to Justine in time and figuring out a way to cover the costs of the 500 masks she wanted to stitch and how to do all this, while being limited by a lockdown.”
To cover the costs of materials and the equipment Justine would need, we set up a targeted fundraiser on Facebook for 700 Euros. We had used this approach before to support our past fellow Huda when she was selected to attend the European Development Days Conference in 2019 and were fairly confident we could replicate that success again.
Both Justine and the Phoenix team were quite insistent that we use recycled materials in the production of the masks. Given that sustainability is one of the pillars we premise our approach upon, this was the perfect opportunity to do so. But the lockdown really prevented our team on the ground from sourcing these materials easily from our regular haunts, given that they were only allowed to leave the house once a day.
So, we were forced to think out of the box and turn to our network of friends and supporters in Cyprus. This led to a chance conversation with Melanie Boyadjis, a well-known local neurophysiologist, and we were soon in luck. Melanie and her friends had some extra sheets they had been meaning to repurpose and she could get them to our team just before the lockdown was meant to get stricter.
As further luck would have it, Justine works at the Green Tree Supermarket in the Old Town and buying groceries is one of the six reasons you are currently allowed to leave home in Cyprus. Combining it with our grocery shopping, our team was able to get Justine the materials on a regular basis. We even managed to get Justine scrap African Wax materials that had come all the way from Barcelona from our partners Diomcoop (and there’s a whole new story there that we will be telling shortly).
Three weeks later and we had exceeded our fundraising goal. Justine was able to invest the money in her sewing machine, needles, elastic, thread and fabric. She currently lives in the Caritas shelter for migrant women in Nicosia and was able to involve several of her fellow residents into the mask making process as well and therefore actually “pay it forward”. This is something which is at the core of our agenda at Project Phoenix.
So far, Justine has made over 400 masks and is currently working on the last batch of 100. The team meets her at her work, takes the masks home and washes them at 90 degrees before individually repacking them for delivery.
The masks have been distributed at a number of different locations across Nicosia, including the Vama Indian Store at Oxi Circle, to groups of refugees and asylum seekers at their homes and through our partner Caritas Cyprus who has added the masks to their weekly grocery care packages which reach people in need. A number of prominent Nicosians, including Cultural Producer Argyro Toumazou, have supported Justine in her endeavour.
Our recent experience working with Justine highlights the difference a little support and an innovative mindset can make for a female entrepreneur who wants to benefit her host community.
You can see pictures of people wearing Justine’s masks all over Cyprus on our Instagram account @projectphoenixeu, or via the hashtag #masksbyjustine.
Both Project Phoenix and Justine are immensely grateful to Melanie Boyadjis, Caritas Cyprus, Anna at the Caritas Shelter, the Vama Indian Store and everyone else who supported Justine in this effort.
Project Phoenix is a young European NGO and social enterprise working to empower migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in an urban setting, using the best of a social innovation playbook. Premised on the pillars of sustainability, economic empowerment through entrepreneurship, socio-cultural integration through professional-skills training and mentorship, we leverage our global networks and fill gaps that legacy institutions and international organisations are often unable to. We are limber, agile and use a systems-thinking, non-prescriptive approach to present feasible solutions.
Project Phoenix is currently running a Pilot Project on the ground in Cyprus. Motivated individuals apply to join as fellows to receive assistance through skills training and entrepreneurial support. Fellows contribute to their local community through the establishment of their own social enterprise which allows them to pay it forward. This innovative approach encourages the sustainable empowerment of refugees and migrants and the development of a circular and sustainable economic and social movement on the island.
