Skyfarer Takes To The Gambia
Driven by the philosophy that distance and terrain should not be barriers to accessing healthcare, Riders for Health and Skyfarer Ltd are working together with a mission of using drones for medical delivery.
Riders for Health is a non-profit NGO that specialises in supplying, managing and maintaining vehicles for health-focused organisations in African countries. The NGO has been running for over 30 years to improve the capacity and efficiency of government and non-government lead healthcare delivery organisations across Africa. Having provided care to over 47 million people with a fleet of over 1400 vehicles spanning across the continent of Africa, Cherno Jallow The Gambia’s Riders for Health Country Director, sees drones as the next phase of healthcare logistics.
Initial conversations between the two organisations started over 3 years ago, with the first in-country demonstration being completed early this month.
Take a look at the Riders for Health Website here:
In the recent trade mission to The Gambia, the Skyfarer team and Riders for Health met with the Ministry for Health, The Gambia armed forces and the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority to conduct multiple demonstrations and trial flights, all successful.
The focus is to ensure the transport of urgent vaccines, drugs, supplies, and blood samples are delivered faster, to ensure that patients are treated as quickly and effectively as possible.
“It’s been a long time coming, but working in collaboration with Riders for Health is enabling us to pioneer a new capability for medical delivery in this country together”, Elliot Parnham, CEO of Skyfarer Ltd.
The Skyfarer team used the PW.One aircraft to simulate the delivery of vaccines to a health facility in front of many stakeholders.
“The PW.One can carry a 500g payload, perfect for blood samples and vaccines, it is absolutely ideal for that last-mile delivery piece. It means that by using the drone, we can decrease the turnaround time of samples being processed in a lab and patients get their results quickly. United, our goal is to save lives, provide faster treatment to The Gambia’s society and increase distribution across the country”. Elliot Parnham, CEO of Skyfarer Ltd.
Having a small glimpse at what the future holds for quality health services across the country has made the partnership more determined than ever to ensure medical drone delivery is accessible to The Gambia’s nation, eliminating the barrier of distance and terrain as a whole.
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