COVID-19 – masks to the medical frontlines with Jacaranda FM's Scenic Drive
With overwhelmed medical staff all over South Africa working selflessly to combat the COVID-19 outbreak, they face up to a deadly disease on a daily basis – at great risk to themselves and their families - and need all the support they can get. Jacaranda FM’s Scenic Drive with Rian van Heerden stepped up to help with their #ScenicDriveMasks initiative and have collected close to 5000 masks – a tally that is steadily rising – to date.
On 30 March 2020, Rian and the team launched the initiative on-air - calling on listeners to help these frontline heroes by donating surgical and respiratory masks, which the team would collect from homes and businesses all over Gauteng.
The response was overwhelming, with 2444 Surgical Masks, 991 N95 Masks and 1905 Gloves collected from donors, by Mike Bolhuis and his team at SSS Security Services, within just two days.
These items were then collected and distributed by Churchills International Express to various recipients who reached out to the team, including Botshilu Private hospital in Soshanguve, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Spartan Municipal Clinic in Kempton Park, Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital in Pretoria and Unjani Clinic in Midrand.
The team was then contacted by Wilfred Bock and the team at Curro Schools, who have an initiative that 3D prints and laser cuts face shields, saying that they were willing to donate 1500 of these to the cause.
These shields were received by Rian during a “virtual handover” and collected on Good Friday, 10 April. The Salvation Army Krugersdorp Corps stepped up and volunteered to deliver these to more recipients in desperate need across Gauteng throughout the Easter Weekend and the following week.
“This disease doesn’t rest, nor do the professionals on the frontlines and nor should we,” Van Heerden says. “President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a message of hope with his address on Thursday and it’s these remarkable men and women – medical staff and the donors who step up to help them – who give that hope the tangible body that saves lives. We are truly humbled and inspired by all the support we’ve received to date. At Jacaranda FM we will do everything in our power to change the changeable.”
Follow #ScenicDriveMasks, stay tuned to Jacaranda FM and www.jacarandafm.com, listen via the Jacaranda FM app – available for IOS and Android, DStv Channel 158 or tune in via https://www.jacarandafm.com/listen-live/ for more.