BENGALURU: Back at home in Germany, Jana Hennig’s parents are in lockdown without masks, a concern which first led to her making masks. The exercise soon turned into an initiative of putting together instructions in 24 languages on the correct technique to making one.
“I’m not a doctor, but I wanted to do something from home to help others,” says Hennig, the brainchild behind the project, bangaloreMASKproject (available on thevinebangalore.com/the-mask-project/) that contains a step-by-step instruction manual and video on making three-layered mask. Hennig is an event manager at Vine Blr, a lifestyle website helping those new to Bengaluru explore restaurants, suggestions on neighbourhood guides, and travel.
A conversation with a friend in Germany about this issue, and a mention about people making masks, led to her idea of teaching people how to make masks. “My friend sent across a document on making three-layered masks. While I initially started to sew them, within a few days I thought it might be a better idea to teach people how to make masks. That way the reach would be larger,” says Hennig who came to India a year-and-a-half ago with her engineer husband.
It was then that she also figured that translating the instructions to different languages could be beneficial, and Hennig connected with friends – Lisa Renstroem, a Swiss American who moved from Bengaluru to Shanghai a while ago; Erin Masias, an American living here; and Gurudeep Ramakrishna, Tejaswini Gopalaswamy and Tena Pick from Bengaluru, to make the project possible.
From a neighbour who translated the instructions into Gujarati to friends across the globe who translated it into different languages, help was at hand. The result has been guides in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bengali, Odia, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi, as well as in Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Serbian, and Spanish.
“All of this was done virtually. We have also got video instructions for those like my husband who would be more comfortable with that. Or for anyone who cannot read,” she says, adding that she is happy to address any additional queries. “COVID-19 doesn’t differentiate between nationalities. Everyone is susceptible,” says Hennig.As she helps other stay safe, Hennig is hoping that somewhere the mask project will percolate to her parents, ensuring they remain safe.