Ayyub Hanif is an accomplished registered nurse entrepreneur and professor, with the belief that “service is a core tenant of being human, and that the social good truly is a responsibility upon all of us.” He is also the CEO of INGE Benevolent Ministries and co-founder of Muslimat Al-Nisaa, a health and social services nonprofit that provides shelter to homeless Muslim families and social support to the community at large. During the early days of the pandemic, Hanif utilized his position at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing to access the most up-to-date research on COVID-19 to purchase and distribute thousands of quality cloth (with filter), PM2.5 Surgical, and N95 face masks to anybody he could find that needed them (at the time individuals were selling numerous fake products at excessive prices to the needy). Recognizing the serious health implications of misinformation coupled with the lack of administrative infrastructure to withstand a health emergency of this magnitude, he reallocated a large portion of our budget towards direct community and social support. According to him, the initiative would require him to “rapidly retool, repurpose, and reallocate our human resources because we aren’t prepared to respond to a domestic emergency of this magnitude for this long.” Being a nurse he purchased a MERV13 air purifier for the front lobby of his condo and gave masks to the frontline staff and guests for free. Additionally, he distributed and gave food to houseless people, cash grants to the homeless, transportation support, and information to families in need. To him the mission was clear, the time it would take to respond to an unknown virus that we are just learning about would be too long and people would suffer as we figured it out. Click Here To Read Full Article |
