Man donates sanitary pads to quarantined women, medics in Covid-19 hotspot

By Thuy Quynh   June 6, 2021 | 08:00 pm PT
Nguyen Nhat Linh has donated more than 13,000 sanitary pads to quarantined women and frontline medical workers in Bac Giang Province.

As Covid-19 raged in Bac Giang, in mid-May, local man Linh, 38, and 10 of his friends set aside their own work to establish a volunteer group to donate supplies to frontline medical workers.

The group began to solicit necessities and medical equipment from donors deliver it to quarantines and field hospitals.

Nguyen Nhat Linh spends his own money and calls on benefactors to donate sanitary pads. Photo courtesy of Linh.

Nguyen Nhat Linh spends his own money to buy sanitary pads and also seeks donations. Photo courtesy of Linh.

A few days before they began, Linh learned that women desperately needed sanitary pads but were unable to go out and buy them. So he came up with the idea of donating pads, something that few donors pay attention to.

"I ran straight to the grocery store and bought 2,000 packs of sanitary pads," he said.

Someone took a photo of his purchase and posted it online saying he was hoarding goods to resell at a profit later. But when they came to know what he was doing, they removed the post and apologized.

When Linh later solicited donations, people sent in more than 13,000 packs. There are more than 40,000 female workers at quarantines in industrial zones alone, he estimated.

Many women were happier to get sanitary pads than even food or drinks, he said.

Members of Linhs volunteer group unload donated necessities from a transport truck. Photo courtesy of Linh.

Members of Linh's volunteer group unload supplies for handing over to medical workers. Photo courtesy of Linh.

"While food, drink and medical equipment are necessary, ensuring the comfort of female medics is also important." Linh, who runs a business, entrusted it to his assistant before forming the volunteer group, and contacted the Fatherland Front Committee of Bac Giang Province to find out where there were shortages and of what.

Initially the volunteers spent their own money but later decided to solicit donations in kind and asked people to donate daily necessities, antiseptic solution and drinking water.

To find out what people in quarantine and locked down areas need, the group asks doctors and nurses.

The volunteers plan to carry on their work until the epidemic situation improves.

 
 
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