UMS donates hand sanitizer to frontliners, B40 group, schools

Taufiq (centre) during the simple handover ceremony at UMS yesterday.

KOTA KINABALU: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) yesterday donated its own hand sanitizer formulation to help keep frontliners, the bottom 40% (B40) income group and schools safe from the Covid-19 pandemic.

UMS Natural Resources and Science Faculty (FSSA), through a group of researchers from the science sector led by Prof Dr How Siew Eng, produced 1,173 litres of hand sanitizers and part of it had been filled into 6,700 small bottle units that had been distributed for free.

Yesterday, UMS handed over hand sanitizers to eight government agencies and NGOs, and 21 schools in Sabah.

“We have our own expertise and we provide this hand sanitizer for distribution to the frontliners, B40s and schools in Sabah, and for our students to maintain cleanliness and as a measure to prevent Covid-19,” said UMS vice chancellor  Prof Datuk ChM Dr Taufiq Yap Yun Hin after a simple handover ceremony held at the university here yesterday.

“We chose [the organizations]randomly. If we can afford… we would give it to everyone. We are still looking for funding to get chemicals to make [the hand sanitizer]and distribute to everyone,” he disclosed, adding the hand sanitizers will be distributed to more places like hospitals and to the police force.

The hand sanitizer, produced according to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, is a “Function of Science” project under the “Global Innovation through Science and Technology (GIST)” initiative by the “United States Department of State”.

According to the GIST Malaysia director Murali Prasad Y Vandayar, among the corporate bodies sponsoring the raw materials to make the hand sanitizers are Lendlease, Yayasan MRCB, Tessolve Semiconductor, WWRC, Mayplas Packaging, Apical Scientific, MITR Mediservice, Acme Chemicals, Elite Advanced Materials  and individual donors.

The initiative is aimed to ease the burden of costly hand sanitizers for the B40 and frontliners in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, and to help frontliners on duty for the time when soap and water sources are not available for handwashing.

In the meantime, UMS FSSA also inked a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) on June 18 that will see to the Used Hand Sanitizer Bottle Recycling Project.

The LoI, signed by Kota Kinabalu City mayor Datuk Nordin Siman and FSSA dean Prof Dr Baba Musta, will recycle the used bottles so it can be redistributed to other people especially the B40 group.

Therefore, the people are welcome to donate used hand sanitizer bottles to the collection centre located at the UMS main entrance, Damai Multipurpose Hall, DBKK Building and DBKK Office at Level 7, Centre Point Sabah.

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