Hi everyone,

This is just a quick update after 24 hours to say thank you to everyone who has stepped up so far, and to give you an insight on the way forward.

First steps

So here we are, in the midst of a crisis, trying to do the right thing. None of us can do this alone, but as a team, as a community, we can do this. We can save lives in the coming months.

Medical

We need to get the Zimbabwean medical authorities on board as quickly as possible. We don’t want this scuppered by bureaucracy. So I think we need:

• an advocate or team of avocates/medical professionals
• a point of contact with MCAZ/HPAZ or whoever else that will need to stick their oar in.

We also need medial guidance form medical professionals who know procedure and practice with using a ventilator, like a ICU nurse, theatre nurse or other RN/RGN with the skills and knowledge and with time to guide the engineering team.

Engineering

So there are several routes to follow here, first the open source build:

• The first draft is may be based on the Oxford Uni / Kings College prototype see https://oxvent.org/
• There is also a UZ team out there designing their own prototype, we are trying to get them on board as quickly as possible. We have reached out & if you know anyone on this team or the professor leading the team, please get them to contact us.

Second is the rebuild / refurbish / re-purpose route:

This is where we need the Zim bush mechanics and make-a-plan team. Some of this will not be medically safe, but if it works and saves lives out in the field, I guess we use it. Even if we have to burn it after (i.e. single use systems). So, if you are an engineer with experience in pumps, valves, we need you!

Money

At the moment the focus is on building the team and getting the financing sorted. We have a gofundme in the UK to collect some international funds. But we do not have a facility to collect and use funds locally in Zimbabwe. That’s a tricky thing to do and have the funds remain valuable. Those of you here in Zim understand what we mean. So I think we need:

• A legal/accounting person/team who can arrange, manage and sort the local financing.
• A bank or financial institution that can support this,
• A funding coordinator.

So if you know anyone who can help us on this please point them to the form on the website, and make sure you/they add the relevant info in the boxes so we can identify them.

Please note, this is a non-profit initiative. Everyone is volunteering, and all money stays in the project.

Equipment and supply

Ooof. This is a toughy. Where do we get stuff? We need logisticians, we need people with local knowledge of who, what and where stuff might be that we can use, & we need people to move stuff, places to store stuff, places for production, and people to distribute. Are you the person that knows all this? Are you the business owner that can give us a manufacturing base suitable for medical? Are you the fundi with a workshop and 3D printer? Get in touch!

The team

Juliet had the mad idea to start this and bring together the team. She’s got experience in epidemic prevention, social and behaviour change, and mobilising movements to get things done.

Tim is an engineer, Chartered Engineer in the UK, used to design and fix ships, submarines, oil rigs, etc. Now an IT guy / techie / web developer here in Zim.

We’ll introduce more team members as we go along!

You

We are building the team and inviting people to the Slack channel (where we will have most of our comms) as we process them. Please log in and say hello when we send you an invite. Please be patient as I process all the applications. Please, also, we need an administrator soon, we can see a few in the applications list, but if you think you have skills in remote team management, highlight it in your application.

Anyway, enough of a brain dump for day 1. Forward this to folks you think can help.

Thank you all again.

Stay safe out there,

Tim & Juliet