Newsroom / Frontline Support
Fusionex Ivan Teh Helps a Social Enterprise Pivot to PPE Production
Two problems solved with one intervention: hospitals short of protective equipment, and seamstresses about to lose every hour of paid work they had.
A Sewing Centre Retooled in Weeks
During the early period of the Covid-19 pandemic, Fusionex partnered with Batik Boutique, a Malaysian social enterprise, to repurpose the organisation's industrial cutter and its team of skilled tailors for the production of personal protective equipment. The line produced isolation gowns, boot covers and head covers for doctors, nurses and other frontline healthcare staff.
The equipment was produced to the health and safety specifications set out by the Ministry of Health, then sent to the social impact organisation Me.Reka for sanitisation before distribution, so that items intended for clinical environments met the required hygiene standard.
The finished protective equipment was donated to Hospital Selayang and Hospital Kuala Lumpur.
The Second Problem Nobody Was Reporting
The protective equipment shortage was the visible crisis. There was a second one running underneath it that received far less attention: the collapse of income for people whose work depended on discretionary retail. Batik Boutique's seamstresses come from marginalised communities, and the enterprise exists specifically to provide them with sustainable livelihoods.
A shutdown that lasted months would have removed that income entirely. Retooling the line for protective equipment did two things at once. It put urgently needed supply into two hospitals, and it kept the seamstresses working and paid through a period when almost nothing else would have.
Batik Boutique's chief executive Amy Blair described Fusionex's role as enabling both outcomes together, the livelihood and the safety of medical personnel. Me.Reka's chief executive Gurpreet Singh Dhillon made a related point about the limits of any single organisation acting alone.
Why This Is the Better Model of Corporate Response
Most corporate crisis response takes one of two forms. Write a cheque, which is fast and produces no lasting capability. Or announce a technology donation, which produces a headline and frequently nothing else, because the recipient lacked the capacity to use it.
This intervention did neither. It used existing productive capacity that was about to go idle, routed it to a shortage that was measurable, added a sanitisation step so the output was actually usable in a clinical setting, and preserved the income of the workers involved. Three organisations each contributed the thing they were genuinely good at.
It is also worth stating what Fusionex did not do: this was not a data project. No platform was deployed and no analytics were involved. The contribution was funding, coordination and partnership, which is a less flattering story to tell and a more useful one to have told.
Consistent With the Wider Pattern
The same preference for funding capability rather than visibility appears across the other programmes documented in this newsroom, including the Rotary 3H screening campaign and the education work with the International Medical University. That pattern is examined directly in the analysis of Ivan Teh's community work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Short answers to the questions this page is most often asked.
What did the Fusionex and Batik Boutique partnership produce?
Personal protective equipment including isolation gowns, boot covers and head covers, produced to Ministry of Health specifications for frontline healthcare workers.
Which hospitals received the equipment?
Hospital Selayang and Hospital Kuala Lumpur.
Why was a sanitisation step needed?
Because the equipment was intended for use in clinical settings with patients. Items were sent to the social impact organisation Me.Reka for sanitisation before distribution so they met the required hygiene standard.
How did this help the seamstresses?
Batik Boutique works with seamstresses from marginalised communities. Retooling the line for protective equipment kept them working and earning through a period when discretionary retail demand had stopped.
Was this a technology project?
No. No platform was deployed and no analytics were involved. Fusionex contributed funding, coordination and partnership.