DAY 1:

This is the story of some people close to us who have decided not to stand still in the face of the situation we are experiencing. In this unprecedented crisis that we live in which health personnel save lives daily in overflowing hospitals, there are also other professionals who help protect those who protect us.

you know them They are our teachers, our heroines, Alicia, Marga, Laura and Tamara, who together with other colleagues, experts in clothing, Elena, Marta and Eva, have put all their trade and professional skills into making gowns and masks. They are supported from the rear by Rita, Isabel, Amaya and Ana, and since Tuesday, March 24, they have been working tirelessly in our magnificent workshops on the Madrid Quintana Campus to supply, in a titanic effort, equipment for hospitals. 

They make masks and gowns of cotton washable at 90^o for the toilets, but also for those who clean and disinfect the facilities, those who maintain supplies and for all those who guarantee our safety. This first day the first 50 units have already left for the cleaners of the Hospital Virgen del Puerto de Vallecas, tomorrow there will be 150 and soon they hope to reach the figure of 200 daily.

Thank you for your effort!

DAY 2:

Ana, head of the cleaning team at the Virgen de la Torre Hospital, is afraid when she goes to her job every morning. A fear that she increases when she sees infected and intubated patients. But while health personnel protect themselves with the few means at their disposal, with precious gloves and masks, the people who clean have fewer or no resources.

Today there are already 6.493 toilets infected by COVID-19, 13,4% of the total number in Spain, and 3 deceased at the time of writing this article. A figure that is increasing and that endangers the necessary assistance to face the crisis. How many people from the cleaning teams are infected?

This morning, Ana received the package of masks made at the URJC and could not contain her emotion: “They are the most beautiful masks in the world”. It is true. They could have been part of the accessories of a parade, made with a fabric that Isabel had to make catering clothing. But nothing further.

Our teachers have called themselves URJC Fashion Command, and this second day they have completed 100 more masks. They have also prepared the fabrics to start tomorrow with the gowns and continue working to improve the designs.

After two days. All clothing and fashion companies work without delay in the manufacture of equipment and most buy the fabrics they find on the market. We just have to read the news. They are that silent army that watches from the rear to send material to the front line.

DAY 3:

Will we have fabric for tomorrow? This is the question our team has been asking after two days. All clothing and fashion companies work without delay in the manufacture of equipment and most buy the fabrics they find on the market. We just have to read the news. They are that silent army that watches from the rear to send material to the front line.

The planes from China, Sweden and Turkey are going to unload 432 million euros in health products purchased by the central government, and another 23,3 million by the Community of Madrid to meet the urgent demand of Madrid hospitals. But some deliveries will not take place until April or June... The virus does not understand bureaucracy.

At noon, the WhatsApp of all of us was on fire and the mobiles did not stop vibrating before the barrage of messages that came in almost chained. Among them, one requests gowns made of waterproof material for the Hospital de la Princesa where the situation is desperate. Robes are being made out of garbage bags! Alicia remembers that on the Fuenlabrada Campus there are some rolls of this type of fabric that can be used to make gowns. At that moment we read “I have a vito”, says Amaya, who from the rear follows the production process day by day. "But I don't have a safe-conduct to travel from my house to the Quintana Campus." Pablo comments that the document will not be available until Monday. Alicia offers herself and affirms “I can take 100 meters of fabric in a Smart”. What if they stop you at a checkpoint?

Today 75 masks have been sent to the Domus VI - Magan nursing home, in Torrejón de la Calzada, and the pattern of the gown has also been improved and made more effective, in addition to waterproof fabric. Tomorrow the whole team will be ready from the first hour to start manufacturing 200 waterproof gowns for the health personnel of the Hospital de la Princesa.

Will Alicia be able to arrive on time with the fabric?

Cheer up Alice!!

DAY 4:

Beth Emhoff arrives in California on her way back from a trip to Hong Kong with an apparent cold. Ella's husband Mitch tries to take her to the hospital, but he dies. This is how the movie begins Contagion, from 2011, a fictional story performed by Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon with a happy ending. We have never thought that a similar scenario would take place and if it did, our highly developed society would remedy it in a few days, or at most in a few weeks as in the film. The reality is not like that, and what we see daily in the news are daunting images of hospitals that could be the trailer for a disaster movie. What has failed? How has this chaos been produced?

"I'm down, I need help." This morning, Alicia arrived on time with the waterproof vinyl fabric washable at 170^o. The first 18 of an order of 40 gowns have been made for the Hospital de la Princesa that will be served on Monday. Meanwhile, Tamara, Laura, Marga, Elena, Marta and Eva work in a chain and have made 20 more masks for the Virgen de la Torre Hospital, this time for security personnel. Also 60 pillows with their covers, made of a material donated by the company Tejidos del Centro, for the Ramón y Cajal Hospital. As soon as they received the order, three doctors from Ramón y Cajal came out to pick it up and exclaimed!finally pillows! Is what we see believable? 

There are several answers, one is simple: offshoring. In the fashion industry we have experienced it closely during the last decades. Western countries have moved the factories of manufactured products with low added value to Asia and kept only those with high technological value in our territory. Cardboard masks, waterproof gowns, plastic protective visors, nitrile gloves, disposable full protection suits... the list is long. Even the drug molecule that can relieve symptoms and protect health personnel from COVID-19 is manufactured in India, the hydroxychloroquine, and at the moment there is no access to it because the Indian government has restricted its export.

Everything is made in China. While in Spain, in Europe, in the West, a simple cardboard mask or a cushion have become luxury items that can save lives. Now they are strategic products. Such is the situation that hospitals do not even have enough pillows for all those admitted, who need to be in an upright position to be able to breathe.

On Monday Amaya, with her Vito, will take 100 meters of fabric from Fuenlabrada to Quintana and the first 40 waterproof fabric gowns will be delivered to the Hospital de la Princesa.

Very good girls!!

NOVELTIES: 2.882 pieces “Made in Comando Moda”

“Good morning, I'm Anaval, nurse in charge of the Artilleros de Vicálvaro Health Center. We wanted the whole group to thank you for the 10 wonderful robes you have given us. Thank you very much for this work you are doing, the whole group is very grateful. So everyone, thank you."

We were not prepared. Since the crisis began, we have witnessed the use of homemade protection against Covid-19 in Madrid hospitals and health centers. Defenseless, doctors and health personnel have thus faced an invisible enemy. But the drama has been even more terrible in nursing homes. Plastic jumpsuits made by volunteers with garbage bags and defective masks that have had to be removed. Bureaucracy, lack of means and abusive sales prices of medical supplies on the international market have further exacerbated the situation.

The figures of those infected by Covid-19 in Spain today, Monday, April 27, rise to 209.465, including 37.994 health workers. The good news is that 100.875 patients have recovered from the epidemic. In this recovery scenario, in which doctors have not stopped saving lives for a single moment, the fashion industry has also played a decisive role in the fight against the virus. For example, the Spanish company Inditex has transported to our country free of charge, from factories and logistics centers in China, 457 million Euros in medical supplies, including 850 medical ventilators acquired by the Spanish government. A figure that represents half of everything spent by Health during the pandemic. 

For its part, the URJC "Fashion Command", made up of our professors from the Degree in Fashion Design and Management and a group of external volunteers, has manufactured since the crisis began a total of NOTE 2.882 "Made in Fashion Command”: 855 gowns of different fabrics, 1.040 masks, 72 pillows and covers, 60 aprons. All this material has been delivered to 6 Hospitals, 9 Residences for the Elderly y 15 Health Centers of the Community of Madrid. To this list we must add 200 ear savers made of plastic and 26 face shields made by teachers of the Degree in Integral Design and Image Management in Quintana. (At the end I attach a list of units and centers).

Isabel Miguel – a member of the Comando Moda who operates in the rearguard – writes: “I have called a person in Valencia to see if he knew of someone who made gowns there. An hour later, she called to tell me no, but to put me in contact with Alicia García San Gabino in Madrid”.

Many thanks to all of you who have made this incredible task possible. A master class in generosity, responsibility, ethical commitment, professionalism and efficiency, respect for all the people who are putting their lives in danger to care for others.

HEROINES AND HEROES

core workshop: Alicia Garcia San Gabino, Laura Villanueva, Margarita Diaz Burgos, Tamara Ruiz, Eva Romero, Miguel Carvajal. external workshops: (A) Ana Santamaría, Amaya Matesanz, Alfonso Vicente, Fina Fernández, Raúl Amor. (B) Judith Hurtado, Ronald Antonio, Sonia Labrador, Matilde Lázaro. Support workshops: Elena Lobo, Marta Ramos. Administration and logistics: Isabel Miguel Azcárraga, Rita Cisnal, Cristina Garre, Pablo Prieto, Miguel Ángel del Río. Donations: Fabrics la Santanderina, 33 Footprints Uniforms, Fabrics of the Center.

HOSPITALS AND CENTERS

6 Hospitals: Virgen de la Torre de Vallecas Hospital, Princess Hospital, Ramón y Cajal Hospital, Gregorio Marañón Hospital, Infanta Sofía SS de los Reyes Hospital, Móstoles University Hospital. 

15 Health Centers: Pacific Health Center, Artilleros Health Center (Vicálvaro), Entrevías Health Center (Vallecas), Martínez de La Riva Health Center, Vicente Soldevilla Health Center (Vallecas), Ibiza Health Center, Adelfas Health Center, Perales de Tajuña Health Center, Cerro Almodóvar Health Center (Santa Eugenia), Buenos Aires Health Center (Vallecas), Improved Rural Health Center, Alcalá de Guadaira Health Center, Sta. Mónica and 1 de Mayo Health Center (Ribas), Coslada Health Center, Villanueva de La Torre (Guadalajara), Carcaixent Health Center (Valencia).

9 Residences for the Elderly: Domus VI Magán Residence (Torrejón de la Calzada), Apanid Residence (Getafe), Sagrada Familia Residence (Puerta de Hierro), Amavir Alameda (Guadalajara), Coimbra Park Messengers of Peace Residence, Isla de Taray Residence, La Solana Residence ( Tielmes), Leganés Children's Residence, Vista Alegre Residence (Carabanchel).

Rector's Office, Dean's Office and professors of the URJC: 200 masks

This is not over and the storyto be continue..