Across Ireland community groups and citizens are coming together to support each other and the most vulnerable people in their local communities. The Sew Change project has been established to assist people who own a sewing machine to produce masks for the most vulnerable in their communities. The project is actively including older people, through its partnership with Age Action, Third Age and Age and Opportunity. If you are an older person who has a sewing machine and would like to contribute to the community efforts to keep ourselves and each safe by making masks, this project can help you to help others.

How it works:

• If you would like to volunteer your mask making skills, register below and the social enterprise called The Textile studio will send you a pack which contains everything you need to make 10 masks, including:

o Pre-cut fabric for 10 masks o Nose wire for 10 masks o Elastic for 10 masks o A self-addressed return envelope

• Once you sign up, you can download the mask-making instructions showing you exactly how to make them
• Keep 2 – 4 for yourself and your friends and family or people in need in your community
• In the self-addressed envelope, send back the remaining masks
• In association with www.irishrefugeecouncil.ie, we will distribute the donated masks to Direct Provision Centre. The goals is that every person in direct provision will have access to two masks.
• If you would like another pack, you can just sign up again, just as you did the first time

The project will be running for one to two months and aims to produce 4,500 masks for older people and people in direct provision. As is becoming increasingly clear from research, masks can be effective in protecting people and communities. However many people cannot afford a high quality, washable mask. This project seeks to make these more widely available. This project is all about helping people to help others in their community. This project also shows that Irish people see community as including refugees and people seeking asylum. By being part of this project you are saying – ‘welcome, you are an important part of our community, be safe’.

On behalf of The Textile Studio, ChangeX and the Irish Refugee Centre, Thank you for helping to make Ireland a safer and more welcoming place! Register to get started here