Covid mask angel now helping heat hundreds of homes in cost of living crisis

01 March 2024 , 13:36

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Syebvonne Nguyen has been lending a helping hand during moments of hardship (Image: Syebvonne Nguyen)

A selfless mum-of-five who delivered more than 37,000 face masks during the height of Covid is now helping heat homes amid the cost of living crisis - even using some material left over from the pandemic.

Syebvonne Nguyen, 45, from Morden, Merton, became a familiar face around South West London after she decorated trees with face masks to provide schools and residents with free PPE. The self-taught seamstress became so in demand that she launched a volunteer team, called Little ARK (Acts of Random Kindness ), which has since gone on to serve communities for the past four years.

Now, the mum and her army of helpers are recycling and sewing materials to create insulation to stop people freezing during winter. As temperatures continue to plummet, the resourceful team are busy distributing hundreds of items such as handmade blankets and draught excluders, which are being requested by charities.

Syebvonne says she launched her latest project, ‘mission draught excluders', after becoming shocked by the rapid increase in fuel prices which hit the country. "There are still many people who feel isolated and suffering from post pandemic trauma, besides facing the cost of living crisis on top of our major climate change problems," she told The Mirror.

"Two years post-pandemic, we did not expect the fuel prices to soar rocket high when the war in Ukraine broke out, so it was really timely and ‘mission draught excluders’ quickly took place in autumn of 2022 and we distributed our first 100 plus draught excluders out to the community."

London flat for rent for £1,400 a month with bed tucked away in kitchen cupboard

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The mum launched face mask trees during the pandemic (Syebvonne Nguyen)

Syebvonne stressed that despite their efforts so far, there are still families continuing to struggle and said it is important for the volunteers to help them keep warm. "As a grass root non profit organisation, we see a lot of the gaps on the ground, because there are still kids that fall between the cracks. So we ought to try to help where we can," she added.

The hard-working parent uses materials including pillow stuffing and old clothes to fill the excluders. She added: "during the height of the pandemic, Little ARK was using fabric donated by the community to make tens of thousands of reusable facial coverings for everyone then evolving to making another few tens of thousands of reusable scrub caps, washbags and tote bags for the key workers.

The scraps were previously made into an art display (Syebvonne Nguyen)

Materials such as old clothes are used to create the equipment (Syebvonne Nguyen)

She said: "From those projects, we had a lot of unusable fabrics, fabric scraps that were left over from the cut outs which couldn’t be used for anything else; an art installation called ‘The Fabric Of Our Community’ was birthed by the lovely volunteers. When the art installation was done, we used the ‘weaved fabric’ parts to fill up draught excluders made by the volunteers to help insulate homes."

Syebvonne believes the project has multiple benefits and added: "People have shown this little acts of random kindness during the pandemic, and I don’t believe things are any different now, except people just need the platform to know how to get involved, what to do to support each another.

Volunteers at Merton Mencap have helped tackle the demand (Syebvonne Nguyen)

The team have also made blankets for those in need (Syebvonne Nguyen)

"A better insulated home also means a more energy efficient home, it’s an all rounder winner for human and environment, and how best to do it, by reusing pre existing materials that doesn’t need to end up in landfill. So, this project truly is for every one and anyone to get involved: from climate action heroes to caring members of public or creative hives who love scrap busting."

The mum says she has received a "heartwarming" response to the project, which has since made 350 draught excluders across boroughs. "There’s just so many lovely people being a part of the cause – including members of a club run by local charity Merton Mencap for young adults with learning disabilities and autism called The Giving Back Club who have been involved too, helping us use fabric scraps to fill up the ‘community -sewn’ draught excluder.

"The dedication of The Giving Back Club members has sped up the production and helped distribute more finished items to more community outreach charities, adding more recipients to the list." She continued: "Doing charity work is part of life for me. Carrying out Little Acts of Random Kindness wherever we go should be a way of life."

For information on how to get involved, you can Follow Little A.R.K on Facebook here.

Monica Charsley