Buddhist community in China donates thousands of face masks to Chichester College Group

Andrew Green, Executive Principal, has been coordinating a project with a friend, who is part of Buddhist community based in Beijing, to help the fight against coronavirus.

As a result, a donation of 33,000 face masks and 2,000 surgical face masks – as well as 10,000 bottles of hand sanitiser – was made to CCG by this small but generous community.

Andrew said: “We are so grateful for this incredible donation from our dear friends in China.

“They wanted to help us in our fight against the virus and we now want to share this gift with our local community.

“This clearly shows that by working together across the globe and in our local community we can achieve so much more.

“It has been challenging – I’ve learnt a lot about importing over the past few weeks, but we have overcome this and the masks have been supplied with quality certificates to prove they meet the required standards.

“Our plan is to offer these as donations to our various communities within the CCG family to share this wonderful gift with those that need it most.”

The group is working with partners within the health and social care sector to distribute these products.

These include Angelcare in Walberton, who have taken delivery of the first 1,000 masks.

Jordan Beacher, Care Co-ordinator at Angelcare, said: “We at Angelcare are extremely grateful for the generosity of the CCG and all others that are involved in organising this amazing opportunity.

“What has been donated to us will help ensure that our hardworking carers have access to the required face masks as well as the hand sanitisers which are constantly being used.”

Staff at the colleges across the group – which include Chichester College, Crawley College, Worthing College and Brinsbury College – have also been able access the equipment in return for donations to the group’s chosen charity – The Teenage Cancer Trust.

Supplies are available for other organisations in need.

If you work or volunteer for a local care home, charity or community group or work for the NHS, please contact Clare Lamb ([email protected]) with more information and to register your interest.