Report on the provision of hospital equipment to refurbish Santa Maria Hospital on Chilubi Island in Zambia

AMAP were asked last year 2018 if we could help the nuns from Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood, who were trying to refurbish this very remote clinic which sits on an island in the middle of an enormous lake called Bangweulu in N. Zambia, which as you know is landlocked. The clinic was started by the White Fathers in the late 19^th century but was abandoned in the early 1950s. The entire place was rapidly decaying and becoming derelict.

Thanks to contacts within the NHS we were able to obtain, free of charge furniture and hospital equipment which was being disposed of by an NHS hospital in Surrey.

We were able to get the services of a large heavy goods vehicle to load all the equipment on to and we delivered it to Folkestone from whence, it will be sent free of charge to Santa Maria Hospital in a 40-foot sealed container. This is being done for us by a wonderful charitable group called Operation Sunshine, they send out five or six containers of support materials to schools, hospitals all over Zambia every year.

Here we have the loaded lorry with all the equipment encased in plastic to keep it clean.

A bed with five mattresses being loaded on the truck.

Some of what we have taken down to Folkestone for ongoing transport to Zambia is as follows:

2 Beds, 5 mattresses,  3 commodes, 34 Bedside cabinets, 13 armchairs, 1 office chair, 2 Zimmer frames, two pairs of matched crutches, 1 patient walking aid, 1 empty pharmacy trolley, boxes of surgical gowns, syringes for both infusions and other surgical uses, incontinence pads, plastic bedpans, Gauze dressings, Nebulisers, Pressure syringes, Soap dispenser, Puncture dilator boxes, Hartman Inco system, Pole clamp, Urine collection bags, Hip protectors, Blood administration sets, Safety needles, Syringes without needles, Adhesive surgical dressings, Suction liner system, Adhesive surgical dressings, Urine collection bags, Silo Sheath, Exercise devices, Bag of Distraction pots, Bag of gully pots, Surgical dressings, Pressure syringes,2 patient transfer sheets, Syringe lines, Skin cleansing form, Physio Disc, Paper trays, Gauze packs.

The above will give you a good flavour of what the total consignment involved. The generosity of all impressed Sister Rosalia in Zambia who is in charge of refurbishing the place and we are in active dialogue with another NHS hospital at present which is planning to potentially give us more beds which they are replacing at present

AMAP are only able to do this type of work thanks to the generosity of our kind donors.

We are sure that you can all appreciate that the time involved in getting these goods down to Folkestone, a round trip of almost two hundred miles, we hope was worth the effort and that the beneficiary community in Santa Maria Hospital in Zambia will derive substantial benefit from our time and efforts.

Very many thanks to all within our Pelicans community who contribute to AMAP and we hope this update will encourage you to continue to help and contribute.

Mike Ellis                                                                   John Joyce

10^th March 2019