News
COVID-19 no barrier to Peel Health Campus’s international outreach
Nov 13, 2020
Ramsay Health Care nurse Lungowe (Lulu) Munalula has been shipping decommissioned medical equipment from Mandurah to remote Zambia for more than five years as the founder of a medical and social support charity.
Ms Munalula said this year, she had been able to ship medical beds to Zambia, and was still working to find a way to deliver a recently-decommissioned x-ray machine across the world.
Ms Munalula launched the Timothy Liswaniso Sakakuwa (TLS) Foundation in 2015, a charity which offers vital medical equipment and support for children and orphans in remote parts of Africa.
The Zambian mother of three completed her graduate nurse program at PHC seven years ago and in the Ramsay spirit of “people caring for people” she founded TLS in memory of her late grandfather.
Alongside volunteers from the PHC team and the support of Ramsay Health Care, several shipments of decommissioned medical equipment have been sent to hospitals in Zambia over the past five years.
“We have sent two 40-foot containers full of decommissioned medical equipment and supplies, mostly donated from Peel Health Campus, anonymous donors and the Zambian government.”
“The shipment included medical beds, bedside tables, ultrasound machines, ECGs, IV therapy stands, and a range of other medical tools,” Ms Munalula said.
Ms Munalula said the X-ray machine that had been donated by PHC to a village hospital in Zambia would be used to assist with diagnosing conditions like chest infections, tuberculosis and fractures.
“The hospital staff at PHC have gone above and beyond, helping pack the equipment, storing it at their homes, and donating clothes and other items,” Ms. Munalula said.
PHC CEO, Andrew Tome, said the hospital is honoured to be helping people in need.
“While the medical equipment has been superseded in Australia, it is considered state-of-the-art in some countries.”
“We are proud to be supporting the health system in Zambia, along with other countries such as Madagascar in which we made a major medical donation in 2019,” Mr Tome said.