BSI collaborates with women’s groups to provide facemasks

On the heels of the announcement by Prime Minister Dean Barrow, encouraging the use of face masks, Belize Sugar Industries Ltd. (BSI), a member of ASR Group, started the distribution of locally made face masks to stakeholders—cane cutters, truck drivers, farmers, and harvesting group leaders.
BSI secured and provided the materials for fabrication of more than 5,400 facemasks to women’s groups linked to cane farmer associations from the Orange Walk and Corozal districts. The women began the mass production more than a week ago after BSI’s Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) department approved a sample based on CDC guidelines for non-medical masks to be effective at trapping droplets from speaking, coughing and/or sneezing. Distribution of these fabric facemasks commenced yesterday and each stakeholder will receive a packet containing two masks with a mask-use guide inside.
Meanwhile a local manufacturer, due to the urgency and demand, is in the process of sewing approximately 2,000 facemasks, based on CDC guidelines, for all BSI employees.
This mask distribution program strengthens the ongoing personal hygiene and increased sanitation procedures previously implemented at the mill and cane field levels. In addition, the BSI communications department compiled an industry stakeholder video demonstrating industry efforts to ensure sanitation and social distancing enforcement at all levels.
Please see link: https://youtu.be/yXV6WIyWssc
BSI reiterates the essential importance of the sugar industry to Belize, providing food security and vital home-grown electricity. The company continues to encourage all individuals to safeguard their wellbeing at home and in compliance with the Government of Belize (GOB) and Ministry of Health (MOH) guidelines.