Op Zephyr 2022

  Acting on a promise made by others in 2019, Operation Zephyr has been adopted by ESAC. We pledged to deliver 35 emergency services vehicles and supporting kit to The Gambia, recognising their need. 

Infant mortality rate in The Gambia is at 42 deaths per 1,000 live births. This has improved a great deal over the past few years, however there is still a large area for improvement (Knoema 2022). As well as a high infant mortality rate, the maternal mortality rate is 375/100,000 live births, which continues to be a major challenge for health service delivery. The major cause behind maternal mortality is a lack of prompt response to emergencies combined with disorganized health care. Improving accessibility is necessary for preventing maternal deaths What this means is, expectant mothers in distress simply cannot get to a hospital in time. 

Besides this, the lack of transport means that so many common injuries go untreated. A cut, a sprain, a fall or any injury so commonly treated in Europe and thought nothing more of, without treatment can become life changing. Where we treat basic injury, amputation of limbs is common, affecting entire communities. All of this is simply down to a lack of what we see as basic community facilities, that we could not dream of doing without. 

In September 2022 our volunteers, servicing and retired Police Officers, Paramedics and Firefighters from the UK, France, Germany and Spain delivered 18 Emergency Vehicles to The Gambia. Although this was below our target for a number of reasons, it still added 50% more fire engines to their existing fleet of just 12! As well as the vehicles we also transported around £200,000 worth of emergency equipment as well as school supplies and football kits. We had the pleasure of handing out football kits to local teams and one of our volunteers, a fire fighter, provided two days of training to the Gambian Fire Service We hope this is the first of many aid convoys to Gambia and beyond.