Civil society organisation Pokoj a dobro - pomoc utečencom (Peace and Good – Help for Refugees) established the social enterprise Breco s.r.o., wherein several of its members found jobs. The firm strives to provide suitable job opportunities and accompanying social assistance to the socially disadvantaged and the disabled. The entire profit from the sale of products is used for the social and charity service. Until recently, they were making mostly mats and materials for modelling, however, in the time of the pandemics, they switched to making much needed face masks in large quantities. The firm's motto is the quote of John Paul II: “Work is everyday manifestation of love”.

The law office L/R/P advokáti, s.r.o. decided to support the activities of this community by buying special equipment, in particular a high-power laser for cutting fabrics, that makes the overall manufacturing of the face masks easier.

The laser is intended for cutting non-metal materials, with an automatic shifting mechanism, and can cut several layers of fabric at the same time. It has its own memory or works according to a layout from a connected computer. It can calculate the quickest and most effective way of cutting. After getting acquainted with this technology, the workers can produce thousands of face masks a day. The face masks are then distributed to the surrounding municipalities as well as private companies or individuals. The firm's activity was mainly appreciated by local governments that provide face masks to its social workers and senior citizens, people in hospices, social services centres, retirement homes, etc. It is also thanks to this civil society organisation that the local governments are able to provide these face masks.

Apart from the laser that our law firm donated to the firm, we cannot forget about diligence and hard work of the members of the organisation as well as generosity of individuals who are involved in the process of manufacturing the protective face masks. It is interesting to note that the social enterprise had only one seamstress among its employees and only one sewing machine at its disposal. The management therefore decided to approach seamstresses in the surrounding areas, and with their help the demand for the face masks has been mostly satisfied. The firm also manufactures face masks with filters, from coarse non-woven fabric, however, there has been a short supply of rubber bands for the face masks, these are hard to get in Slovakia in this time of the pandemics. However, the employees came up with a solution and began to cut them from plastic scrolls. Almost all the material was procured for completely different purposes, but in this situation health protection comes first.

Workshop in Výčapy-Opatovce near Nitra was also approached by the representatives of the Kramáre hospital in Bratislava. The civil society organisation produced several tens of specially designed face masks with filter that it donated to the hospital.

We consider the manufacturing of protective face masks by Iraqi Christians under the auspices of Father Brenkus a great example of help, of how joining forces and working together makes it possible to deal with extremely difficult situations such as the one the humanity has had to suffer in relation to the COVID19 pandemics.

We at the law office are very happy to have had an opportunity to help this social enterprise with the said equipment and thus make easier the manufacturing of the protective face masks for such a large amount of citizens.

Let's continue to help each other!