Forming part of its Field Hospital Legacy project launched during the Covid-19 pandemic, Volkswagen Group South Africa (VWSA) has donated containers and other equipment from its decommissioned Rev. Dr Elizabeth Mamisa Chabula-Nxiweni Field Hospital to several local clinics, hospitals and other institutions in the Eastern Cape.

The field hospital, which opened in June 2020, to support healthcare efforts during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, was decommissioned when the facility was no longer critical to Nelson Mandela Bay’s fight against the pandemic.

Following the decommissioning process, the decision was made to repurpose and reinstall 11 containerised ablution facilities to the benefit of local clinics and hospitals. 

The beneficiaries of the containers include the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital, which received three containers that are now used as ablution facilities in the casualty ward, as well as a supplementary ablution facility for staff.

The Dora Nginza Hospital received three containers for public ablutions; the West End Clinic received two containers for public ablutions; the Laetitia Bam Clinic, received one container for public ablutions; and Motherwell CHC received two containers for public ablutions.

Aside from preparing these containers and connecting services such as electricity, water and drainage, the units were also repainted and new signage applied. 

Additionally, 800 medical beds, 280 wooden beds and 1 959 bedside lockers were donated to eight Department of Health facilities across the Eastern Cape.

More than 300 wooden beds and 170 bedside lockers were also given to 15 old age homes in Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City Metro, with 902 wooden beds and 383 bedside lockers donated to 15 child and youth care centres in Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City Metro.

Funding for the container project came from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, with VWSA providing support in terms of project management. 

“Joining forces with partners whose conviction and determination to make a difference match ours at VWSA has been key to the impact we have made, and continue to make, throughout the hardship of the Covid-19 pandemic,” says strategic plant development manager and project lead on VWSA’s Covid-19 response, Manfred Gie.

“To VWSA, this is a legacy project which we hope will bring relief to the constrained health institutions that care for our communities.”