Cape Town – With many people not having enough money for food and facing a daily battle for survival, Marshall Nelson from Mitchells Plain believes businesses, organisations and the government should hand out protective masks for free.
Commenting on the 3D-printed face visors he is handing out in his community, Marshall told the African News Agency this week: “People are charging our community a fortune for these kinds of masks. I don’t think it’s fair.
"Our poorest of the poor can’t afford to buy a mask if they can’t afford money for bread.
"So I think it’s time that businesses and organisations step in and government comes to the party. Let’s make these things and give it out for free."
Marshall Nelson from Mitchells Plain, who produces 3D-printed face visors. Video: Brendan Magaar / African News Agency (ANA)
Father-of-three Marshall told News24 his children came up with the plan and are assisting him in assembling the masks.
"One day, we were watching TV and saw how people were using the printers to make masks," he said
"That is when my daughter said we have the same machines (and asked) why can't we do the same," Nelson explained.
He told the Daily Voice he and his children – Maté, Marté and Marshall jr – began tracing designs for a visor, modelling their concept on a hairband. Nelson has nine printers, with each printing 20 masks in 24 hours.
Nelson is a managing director for Youth Media Movement, an institute aimed at strategic training and skills development programmes for the youth and the physically challenged in Mitchells Plain and surrounding areas.
One of his initiatives is to train the community how to assemble 3D printers and use them to create components for drones, working from a trace design and then printing a structure.