Raana Kalpakji, a Syrian expatriate living in Canada, saw the negative effect that personal protective equipment or PPE shortages were having in Canada. She says her husband, a doctor working at several area hospitals, was living a nightmare, but she could only imagine how bad the situation was in her native country of Syria.

"And I said, 'OK, let me start using my resources, being in the fashion industry, having access to factories around the world. And obviously, China is where most of the PPE are being produced.'"

This is the story of how Kalpakji was able to mobilize people to join her initiative and successfully ship of PPE from China to Syria, in the face of global competition.

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