It is curious how hardships have the unique power to unite us, destroy boundaries and most importantly to rethink the ways in which we interact with one another. This is a phrase that we all have muttered during this global crisis but; Are we really willing to change our ways? Are we willing to leave aside our deeply rooted individualism to do so? Are we willing to understand that this is a united world were we all have a part to play?

On the eve of Christmas day in 1968 the Apollo 8 mission took an iconic image of earth, it was latter name Earthrise. This iconic picture was not taken during a global tragedy, but a marvelous human achievement. Although it became a symbol of our fragility and clear evidence of the interconnectivity we have with one another, our society continued down the road of mass consumption, exploitation of our resources and an overall general idea of individual achievement as the root of social success. Much like the Apollo 8 image, this pandemic reflects our mutual dependency and it will show us, in the end, how worthy of this wonderful globe we really are.

It is because of this; because I deeply believe in our capacity to reinvent ourselves, in the capacity we have as a collective, that, in light of the growing scarcity of face masks, I have created this small open source, do it yourself, solution.

The objective of this product is to relieve the burden on the high-end masks and leave them for people that truly require them. This is a solution of last resort, but seeing the scarcity of masks, specially the one that will happen in developing nations, I felt compelled to act.

It is a cheap (less than 0.7 USD), accessible, easy to make, ergonomic (creates a seal around the face and very comfortable) mask that is even disposable (paper). I have found a couple of research papers that led me to believe this solution would meet minimum requirements.

Having said this, acknowledging that there is still a lot of room for improvement and in the spirit of collective solutions, I am calling on all of you to send me all your feedback, every piece of knowledge counts. It is also vital to test the mask in lab conditions, step that I have not yet been able to do, so if there is anyone that can test the filtration capabilities of the mask I would be very grateful.

I would like to leave you with this excerpt of Kropotkin's Mutual Aid book, which gives us his take on the value of collective power in nature:

"But if we resort to an indirect test, and ask Nature: "Who are the fittest: those who are continually at war with each other, or those who support one another?" we at once see that those animals which acquire habits of mutual aid are undoubtedly the fittest. They have more chances to survive, and they attain, in their respective classes, the highest development and bodily organization. If the numberless facts which can be brought forward to support this view are taken into account, we may safely say that mutual aid is as much a law of animal life as mutual struggle; but that as a factor of evolution, it most probably has a far greater importance, inasmuch as it favors the development of such habits and characters as insure the maintenance and further development of the species, together with the greatest amount of welfare and enjoyment of life for the individual, with the least waste of energy"

P.Kropotkin

REQUEST: If anyone can test the mask please e-mail me to manuel_echavarria@ymail.com