Emile Asari, Yashvir Chetty, Reagan Pramraj, and Sauvarn Singh, second-year civil engineering students in the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology, made face masks for people who need them due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They produced 1 000 masks, each group member making 250 masks at home, as part of the compulsory undergraduate Community-based Project module.

The masks were donated to an NGO, the Nelson Mandela Community Youth Centre, which has a project called COVAC, the Corona Virus Action Committee. This committee has been providing resources such as food and support to get people their medication. The Nelson Mandela Community Youth Centre has been assisting a local hospital, RK Khan Hospital. They donated the masks on 25 May 2020. To be safe and conscientious of the current COVID-19 situation, they had one person deliver the masks to the hospital. They reflected afterwards: ‘As a group, we have learned the effect the COVID-19 pandemic has on the world and the strain it has put on hospitals around the world.’