Regular readers will remember that in September 2022, the charity Smileawi and The MalDent Project team collaborated to send a 40 foot shipping container of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to Malawi. The gowns, masks and visors had been issued to Scottish dental practitioners for use during the COVID pandemic, but many practices had large volumes remaining once the COVID regulations were relaxed. The University of Glasgow had kindly allowed us to use their warehouse and yard in Govan as the site for the loading of the container and also provided a University van that we could use to collect PPE from practices and health centres across Scotland .
Fast forward to late 2024 and the University of Glasgow contacted us about a further vestige of the COVID pandemic that could be of potential value in Malawi. The University had purchased large quantities of hand sanitising products during the pandemic and was holding a significant residual stock of these items in the Govan warehouse. We were asked whether we had colleagues in Malawi who could make use of the hand sanitiser … we did!
As a result of our work to improve child oral health in Malawi, we had previously been introduced to Ms Maria Soko who works for the charity WaterAid in Malawi. Maria had spoken at the Child Oral Health Workshop in Mponela in May 2024 and is a member of the Ministry of Health / Ministry of Education Task Force that is currently developing a Child Oral Health Improvement Plan for Malawi. We sent Maria photographs of the products in storage at the University of Glasgow, together with quantities, and Maria confirmed that these products would be of great value to the work of WaterAid in Malawi.
The one remaining challenge was how to fund the transportation of the donated sanitiser to Malawi. Much to our delight, following discussion the University of Glasgow generously agreed to pay the shipping costs, and the project was underway!
The container was due to arrive at the Govan yard at 11.00am on Wednesday 16th April. The day before this, I visited the warehouse with Nigel and Vicky Milne of Smileawi to meet Davy Henderson, the University of Glasgow Stores Lead, to create a manifest of the materials that would be loaded.
In total, there were 17 pallets of goods, including three different types of hand sanitiser together with dispenser units for fixation to walls.
The following day, the container arrived at 8.30am, well before the scheduled 11.00am. The contract was for a three hour loading period (11.00am – 2.00pm), so the early arrival was a bonus as it gave us significant extra time.
Once the doors of the container were swung open …
… we were ready to start loading, with the help of Davy and the forklift truck …
We were delighted that our good friend Trevor Haye was available to lead the packing. Trevor had been a key player in the loading of the previous container with PPE mentioned earlier, and he also leads on the packing of the containers for The BananaBox Trust in Dundee. After a lifetime in the transport and logistics business, Trevor has an uncanny knack for packing a container tightly and efficiently.
Trevor mapped out the most efficient pattern for the packing, with the heavier boxes towards the bottom. It was like a game of ‘Tetris’.
As the boxes were stacked, further pallets were delivered by the University ofGlasgow team according to the instructions from Trevor:
Slowly the container was filling up …
… and the final boxes were loaded directly from the forklift truck:
At last the final box was loaded and a happy team celebrated a job well done:
It was time to close the doors …
… and apply the hazard labels to each side of the container:
Part of Water Aid’s Global Strategy relates to improving hygiene in healthcare facilities. We hope that this donation of hand sanitiser from the University of Glasgow will be of value to the WaterAid team in Malawi as they pursue this strand of their programme of work.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks are due to Mr Gary Stephen (Head of Security), Mr Grant Suttie (Logistics Manager) and Mr Davy Henderson (Stores Lead) of the University of Glasgow for facilitating the donation of the hand sanitiser and to the University of Glasgow for funding the shipping costs.
Thanks to Vicky Milne for some of the photographs used in this post.
Wow, another lovely kind gesture from Glasgow, to more long-lasting relation between Scotland and Malawi!
Well received thank you 🤝
Wonderful blog Jeremy and a great pictorial narrative of the organisation of the much-needed donation. You made it sound like a piece of cake, although most of us know the hard work, planning and logistics needed to make these things happen. A great initiative and well done to all!! 😀