Project Aid The Gambia today launched an aid container with medical equipment to The Gambia from Essen, Germany. The container was loaded with 36 ventilators for use against COVID-19 and 18 hospital beds. The donated equipment will be handed over to the Ministry of Health in The Gambia.
The 36 ventilators are donations from two medical supplier companies in Germany, Boergel and Loewenstein Medical. The 18 hospital beds are a donation from the Ruhrland Clinic – University Hospital Essen. Additional medical accessories for the ventilators were also loaded, provided by Project Aid The Gambia.
All equipment is used, but in good and functional condition. The ventilators are used to prepare the West African country for the expected increase in seriously ill COVID-19 patients. The ventilators have a new value of approx. 200,000 euros.
There are only 42 officially confirmed Corona cases (as of June 23, 2020) in The Gambia, of which 14 cases are active. 26 patients have recovered, two patients have died. The country with 2.3 million inhabitants currently only has 20 ventilators and eight intensive care bed units for COVID-19 patients.
“Our delivery of ventilators will significantly improve the equipment of the Gambian health system,” says Matthias Ketteler, founder and board member of Project Aid The Gambia. “The number of corona infections in Gambia is still increasing slowly, but the number of unreported cases is high because there are insufficient testing options.” Health experts expect a possibly uncontrollable outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa in the summer. “We want to use this remaining time to help improve the dilapidated health system in The Gambia.”
Two of the ventilators are to be delivered to the Medicare clinic, the best private clinic in The Gambia. In return, this clinic has agreed to instruct staff of the governmanetal clinics in the operation of the devices, reports Matthias Ketteler.
Loewenstein Medical had been working flat out over the past few days to provide as many used ventilators as possible from different locations. “We are pleased that our devices can make a small contribution to on-site help,” says Timo Loewenstein from Loewenstein Medical.
Sales agent Joerk Deimann of Boergel company came to Essen to load the container. Since many years he has been an active member of Project Aid The Gambia. “I think it’s fantastic and very imitative that my company is participating in this campaign.”
Heiko Hannemann, Managing Director of Boergel company: “We are happy to have participated in this relief effort. The ventilators can still serve well there. However, we hope that they never have to be used. ”
Staff of the Ruhrland Clinick had received the ventilators from different cities in Germany, prepared them for dispatch together with the hospital beds and loaded them into the container with the help of Joerk Deimann and Matthias Ketteler.
The Ruhrland Clinic – University Clinic Essen had already supported Project Aid The Gambia in 2019 with a donation of 21 used hospital beds and other medical equipment.
The 20ft container is shipped from Germany to the Gambia via a port in the Netherlands. The container is scheduled to arrive in the Gambian capital Banjul in late July.
In April / May Project Aid The Gambia has already successfully carried out a “Masks for The Gambia” fundraiser and collected around 25,000 euros in donations. In the meantime, over 30,000 washable reusable mouth-nose masks made of cotton have already been produced in The Gambia from the donations of that fundraiser. Around 10,000 masks were distributed to Project Aid`s Jahaly Health Centre and surrounding governmental health centers.
