• In collaboration with the Hamburg school authorities, ABOUT YOU is donating cloth face masks to schools and charitable organizations
• Donating safety: Tarek Müller hands over 50,000 masks for Hamburg’s schools to the State Minister for Schools and Vocational Training, Ties Rabe 
• A total of 35,000 cloth masks have already been sent to institutions – with more to follow this week

After the successful launch of its new online category offering customers fair and affordable access to fashionable cloth face coverings at cost price, ABOUT YOU is now going one step further. In collaboration with Hamburg’s school authorities, the company is donating more than 70,000 cloth masks to schools and the charities Hanseatic Help and Tafel Hamburg, thus ensuring that school pupils and those in need also have fair access to face masks.

As part of Germany’s nationwide mask requirements, wearing a non-medical cloth mask is one of the numerous measures introduced to contain the coronavirus as this can reduce the risk of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to others. However, since the outbreak of the pandemic, both cloth and medical masks have been in short supply all over the world and are often sold or auctioned online at inflated prices. ABOUT YOU wants to set a good example and stop profiteers from taking advantage of the crisis.

The face coverings donated by ABOUT YOU are made of cloth, washable at a minimum of 60°C and can therefore be used many times. However, they are only intended as low-risk protection.

“Through our mask donation, we want to offer targeted help and enable fair access to cloth masks where they are urgently needed but not necessarily affordable. Solidarity is particularly important in times of crisis,” explains Tarek Müller, co-founder and co-CEO of ABOUT YOU.

As a Hamburg-based company, it was important to ABOUT YOU to find local partners for the mask donations. For its cooperation with the Hamburg State Ministry of Schools and Vocational Training, Tarek Müller relished the opportunity to personally hand them over to the Hamburg State Minister of Schools and Vocational Training, Ties Rabe – while observing social distancing and wearing a mask, of course. “I’d like to thank ABOUT YOU Co-Founder and CEO Tarek Müller for the generous donation of 50,000 face coverings for Hamburg’s schoolchildren. Even if wearing them is not a legal requirement and many children and young people will have been given masks by their families, this large donation will make it much easier for schools to deal with this unprecedented situation. It means that every school will now have spare masks if pupils forget or lose their own,” explains Rabe.

Through its donations to Hanseatic Help and Hamburger Tafel, ABOUT YOU is supporting charitable organizations that care for those in need. “We were delighted that ABOUT YOU is supporting our Hamburg packt’s zusammen campaign with the donation of 10,000 masks,” states Claudia Meister, managing director of Hanseatic Help. “The masks will help to protect both our 150 volunteers and our customers at collection points. Without the masks, supplying our 30,000 customers would be impossible, and we are so grateful to ABOUT YOU for helping us,” continues Mats Regenbogen, chairman of Hamburger Tafel e.V.

The first 35,000 masks from the donation have already arrived in schools and at both nonprofit organizations. The remaining 35,000 will be delivered this week.