Dulas attends Action on Disaster Relief in Panama
Dulas showcased its Solar Direct Drive technology at the Action on Disaster Relief (ADR) conference in Panama in February. ADR is a well-established humanitarian aid and development event which aims to further cooperation across the humanitarian aid and development communities. We enjoyed listening to and meeting those at the forefront of delivering disaster aid programmes and gaining a better understanding of how we can answer the needs of major disaster relief projects.
Disaster response mechanisms are key
Recent events in Turkey and Syria demonstrate how important it is to have effective disaster response mechanisms in place, and we believe that building an energy resilient infrastructure is an important part of that. Solar Direct Drive refrigerators can play an important role in supporting the delivery of vaccines and blood bags when regions are in dire straits and logistics are stretched to their limit. Disaster recovery can take years and access to life-saving health care during this time can be severely curtailed.
Keeping life-saving vaccines safe
During the trip Catherine McLennan, Commercial Lead at Dulas met Ministry of Health and DIT officials, where she presented the latest Dulas refrigerators with integrated ICE3 remote temperature monitoring. ICE3 is one of the world’s most advanced and reliable remote temperature monitoring devices. It monitors the temperature of refrigerators, immediately sending alerts via SMS or email if the temperature deviates outside the specified range – all that is required is a mobile phone signal. Like Dulas, ICE3 is WHO PQS accredited, so together, we have created the first fully PQS accredited refrigerator with a truly integrated monitoring system. This is important because it’s essential to purchase life-saving cold chain equipment safe in the knowledge that it will reliably protect temperature sensitive assets like vaccines, wherever they are in the world.
Humanitarian support hubs
Whilst in Panama, Catherine visited the UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) in Panama which plays a leading role in emergency preparedness and response for Latin America and the Caribbean. UNHRD is an international network of humanitarian support hubs located strategically around the world that provide supply chain solutions to the international humanitarian community. Located in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America, each of these locations has been selected to provide easy access to an airport, port and road systems and enables the humanitarian community to respond efficiently and effectively in a disaster. The facilities range from open and closed storage space, to temperature-controlled space and cold rooms. There are currently over 100 UN agencies, government organisations and NGOs that use this vital service – the scale and organisation involved is truly impressive.
