Big BWN Project has been working tirelessly in the background amidst the second wave of COVID-19.
From distributing hundreds of food necessities to medical front liners, to handing out groceries and supplies to heavily impacted communities, the Big BWN Project is determined to help any community that needs it.
“When the first COVID-19 cases were announced, we started planning out our different campaigns; initially restarting our ‘Peradian Initiative For Scrubs’”, said Founder, Noorhafizah Hj Rashid.
In recent weeks, the Big BWN Project has been focusing on its on-going weekly donation drives for the front liners and COVID-19 patients who are stationed at PKBN Temburong, hoping to support these groups of people as much as they can during these trying times.
This initial idea however snowballed where the Big BWN Project started organising campaigns that not only sought to support the front liners, but also the patients, migrant workers and the community.
“Alhamdulillah, it has progressed very successfully especially with the support of the community and also our collaborative partners who have worked alongside us for our different campaigns,” she told The Bruneian in an interview.
Realising how so many people’s jobs, wellbeing and livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic, the organisation also launched the Project:Community Drive and the Ehsan Prihatin initiative to provide basic food necessities to impacted communities in the sultanate.
“The Project:Community Drive project was created to provide groceries to those who have been severely affected by the pandemic especially those who have lost income due to pandemic-related circumstances such as store closures, lost of jobs and more,” continued Noorhafizah.
“We have had a few families reach out to us because their driving classes were stopped, also from people who work in tailors, barbershops, restaurants and more,” she shared.
To date, the organisation has managed to distribute basic food necessities which include rice, eggs, instant noodles and canned food to 27 households.
Similarly the Ehsan Prihatin initiative is aimed at providing support for impacted individuals, however it is targeted towards serving the migrant worker community in Brunei, who for the past weeks have lost a majority of their livelihood and income due to the closure of certain sectors.
The initiative calls for donations for migrant workers who are in need of daily necessities and hygiene kits. Members of the public are invited bring their donations to OGCC Brunei, Unit 19A, Block B, Rimba Complex from 11am to 9pm daily.
Big BWN Project launched the Ehsan Prihatin initiative as a collaborative project with YAS Brunei, Ri’s Café, Arquilato Kusina, Global Shapers BSB, SOA Brunei and Cope For Hope Brunei.
Ultimately, the Big BWN Project aspires to help as many communities in need as they can regardless of race, colour or creed. They have also also reached out to the vulnerable and at-risk groups, arming them with reusable face masks.
In August, the Big BWN Project joined forces with YAS Brunei, Ri’s Café, Minority Report, OGCC Brunei in the Masks4Migrants initiative to help to raise awareness and funds to make the additional distribution of masks possible.
To date, they produced over 4,000 reusable face masks, which were distributed to various staff houses and construction sites across the nation.
The organisation has also partnered with Kunyit7 Lodge and Flux Sdn Bhd, as part of the Brunei Womenpreneur Network’s initiative to provide 5,000 face masks to the underprivileged and low income communities.
Big BWN Project also plans to initiate a “Cellphones For Community” campaign to provide struggling families access to mobile phones.
“The campaign will be a collaboration with CS Service Centre, where we invite the community to donate their unused or faulty mobile devices and have them repaired by the centre. The community can also donate to cover the repair costs at a subsidised rate,” she explained.
“Our target goal is 25 mobile phones. The mobile phones will be donated to students from low income backgrounds. This will help them with their online learning and access to the BruHealth application,” she continued.
Noorhafizah shared that Big BWN Project’s main goal is to bring the whole community together to support those who are in need and have been impacted by the pandemic.
“It’s really important for us to be ready to make changes and adapt when needed, and to be more empathetic towards others as many might not be able to enjoy the privileges that most of us can,” she said.
THE BRUNEIAN | BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
