Personal message

This is a Maker Station community project, in consultation with The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and with the support of the Children's Hospital Trust, to develop and provide open source emergency PPE and medical solutions, for the fight against covid-19.

#makers4RXH

The World is in crisis and we need to join forces to combat COVID-19.

The situation in South Africa and in Cape Town is no different. 

At The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital the heads of paediatrics, surgery, emergency care, ICU, anaesthetics, as well as other staff, have identified specific needs for emergency Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and other medical solutions.

That is why Maker Station has launched the Makers for The Children’s Hospital Project in consultation with The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and with the support of the Children's Hospital Trust.

The goal of the project is to develop and provide open source emergency PPE and other medical solutions. 

We have an opportunity to use Maker Station’s skills, knowledge and resources to provide innovative solutions for the specific needs and challenges that the Children’s Hospital faces during the COVID-19 pandemic. All proposed solutions will undergo robust discussion and testing before implementation so that we can be sure to provide the Children’s Hospital with solutions that are tailored towards their needs and specifications.

GOING BEYOND! 

Making it open source extends the reach and impact of these solutions. It enables makers and hospitals across the country, the African continent and the rest of the world to tap into and adapt these solutions for their needs and specifications. To make this easier, all work will be licensed under a creative commons license.

Since the start of the lockdown, Maker Station has been engaged in the process of  designing, discussing and testing solutions. So far resulting in more than 10 products, design briefs and specific needs being defined by the Children’s Hospital. 

The huge demand for PPE and other medical and sanitation solutions since the start of the pandemic has put a massive strain on supply chains and on the resources available to the Medical fraternity. The Maker Communities and their dispersed, decentralised innovation and manufacturing capacities have stepped into the breach all over the world to provide stopgap PPE and other solutions to prop up overburdened front-line systems and workers.

Maker Station is working with the administrative support of the Children’s Hospital Trust to provide innovative solutions for technical problems that have emerged in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic  in consultation with The Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital.  

THE GLOBAL MAKER COMMUNITY IS STEPPING UP AND SO ARE WE, BUT WE CANNOT DO IT ALONE, WE NEED YOUR HELP!

We need your help so that we can:

• Design and test more solutions
• Refine existing solutions
• Go into full production of the most critical products to protect medical staff and take care of the patients. 

PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS

• ZAMakers  is a group of makers that collaborate with the aim to promote, source, develop and supply open-source, appropriate technologies to fight Covid-19.
• Maker Station HQ Maker Station (https://makerstation.co.za/) is a multidisciplinary network of engineers, artisans, artists and others who are committed to sharing expertise. Maker Station HQ is situated in Woodstock but links exist to volunteers spread around the city, country and the rest of the world.  SA makers, our Dispersed Network of Makers, Fabricators, Maker Spaces and other amazing volunteers are working hard towards filling the needs and gaps for our sanitation and healthcare front line warriors.
• Red Cross Children's War Memorial Hospital, in Cape Town, South Africa was opened in 1956 through public subscription as a memorial to soldiers lost in the Second World War. It is one of two dedicated children's public hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Open Design Afrika uses its platform to democratize new knowledge and focus on Creativity as an agent for change to help build capacity for the Greater Good in Afrika. 
• The Children’s Hospital Trust is an independent NPO set up in 1994 to raise funds to help advance child healthcare through the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town.  This partnership with the Children’s Hospital Trust allows donors’ funds to be ring fenced with strict financial accountability and a guarantee that 100% of the spend goes to the project.  There are no overhead costs taken from these donations. In addition, tax certificates will be provided to donors who donate R100 and above, thank you letters will be issued and feedback in the form of a 1 page report will be provided to donors.
• 3D Community SA The arrival of the coronavirus has seen the 3D Community step forward collectively with the common goal of finding ways to help. South Africa has unique challenges with regard to the outbreak of coronavirus. If there is a way that 3D printing can collectively help anyone from the unsung heroes on the frontlines to our most vulnerable communities, then we must endeavour do so.

YOUR DONATIONS will help to elevate this collaborative effort to a “super power” level. It will increase our  resources and our ability to deliver all the needed solutions, so that we can more effectively protect the medical staff of the Children’s Hospital. They can then more safely take care of and protect their patients.

DONATIONS WILL BE USED FOR:

Your contribution will be used for research, design and batch production of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and medical equipment in consultation with The Red Cross Children's War Memorial Hospital heads of department, as stop-gap measures in the fight against COVID19

ADMINISTRATION OF FUNDS

The Children's Hospital trust will administer all donations, ensuring strict financial accountability and a guarantee that 100% of your donation goes to the Makers for The Children’s Hospital Project.

Donations