An experienced tailor seeking asylum in Ireland is giving free face masks to Wexford locals to keep them safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Aziz Mohiuddin makes around 50 to 100 masks per day when he has the proper materials, on a donated sewing machine.
Mr Mohiuddin moved to Ireland two years ago seeking asylum and now lives at the recently opened Rosslare Asylum Accommodation Centre.
He said he makes the masks because "the whole world is in a very difficult condition".
As the Covid-19 pandemic crisis hit Ireland he tailored the masks to hand out for free to people at the local SuperValu supermarket.
"People think it is a very good job and they like it," he said.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Mr Mohiuddin said he was making the masks to help protect peoples' lives.
However, he added sourcing elastic for the masks was proving difficult and he is hoping some can be supplied.
General manager of the Rosslare Asylum Accommodation Centre Paul Walsh said the project "came about from Aziz's will to do something positive for the area".
He said Mr Mohiuddin's face mask project was one of many initiatives under way at the accommodation centre.
Another includes a cooking project with "talented chefs from all over the world from Syria to Georgia to Bolivia and Nicaragua".
Another group of asylum seekers built a library at the centre from leftover materials after it was retrofitted earlier this year, with the local community donating books.
Local community group Wexford Local Development, as part of a community integration project, helped get a sewing machine and materials for Mr Mohiuddin, having initially put a call out on social media for materials.
"This is about community integration. Our main focus was to allow the asylum seekers to develop relationships with the community," said Marie Louise Byrne, Wexford Local Development's Community Development Co-ordinator.
"We provide a variety of supports through community integration and education programmes," she said.
However, the Covid-19 outbreak has led to the postponing of those programmes.
"With Covid all this fell apart and we had to look at new ways of people being involved in their own communities and contributing to their own communities," Ms Byrne said,
She said Wexford Local Development "is also working with Courtown Direct Provision Centre to make face masks for the Acquired Brain Injury (Ireland) in Wexford".
