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Using Cellular Station Generators (CSG’s) to Power the Cold Chain

by Toryalai Hart
Toryalai Hart
British-American, born in Afghanistan, grew up in West Africa and have set foot
User is currently offline
Thursday, 26 May 2011 Category Distribution systems and stock management 1 Comment

Cell tower on the route de guinee in Mali

Remote Cellular Stations generate power that they convert to radio waves to provide coverage to their consumers.  Such stations are well distributed throughout countries, and growth projections worldwide are excellent.  Cellular Service providers are actively replacing old diesel generators with renewable energy solutions to improve on service reliability, reduce operating costs, and meet Corporate Social Responsibility objectives.  Meanwhile, cold chain storage points are often in proximity to Cellular stations, and have insufficient power to adequately conserve vaccines.  Are there scenarios in which the cold chain could tap into power from Cellular stations?

Tags: cold chain equipment, distribution, equipment logistics, logistics, vaccine carriers, transportation, immunization, maintenance, refrigeration equipment, storage, Solar, Energy, Power
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3 votes

Army Humanitarian Assistance programs can support Immunization

by Toryalai Hart
Toryalai Hart
British-American, born in Afghanistan, grew up in West Africa and have set foot
User is currently offline
Tuesday, 24 May 2011 Category Immunization delivery strategies 3 Comments

US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Teams support EPI

I met the Director of the US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Team in Mali socially in Bamako, and he explained the mission of the US Embassy Humanitarian Assistance Team (HAT) as essentially being a technology transfer of Humanitarian Assistance capacity to the country's army in which teams are based. He also explained that other than conducting "Medcaps", events at which they have stands to perform free services ranging from AIDS testing to medical consultations, that they had an avid interest in strengthening immunization and working with the MoH and NGO's, particularly national ones, to reinforce their programs.

Tags: transportation, immunization, pneumo, logistics, campaigns, Africa, medical waste, distribution, polio
Read More Hits: 1455
3 votes

Latest Blog Comments

Rahman Olasunkanmi Kelani
  Thanks Tory for this beautiful piece. I totally agree with you. there are no complexities, the presidents are the commander in chief of armed forces, and the employer of the minister of healths. These  
ian.tansley
  I think this is a great idea. It's unfortunate that you jump immediately ahead to solar only sites as the vast majority of sites are still powered exclusively using diesel generators. Most of the ti  
ian.tansley
  The concepts of holdover and autonomy have been borrowed from the old battery powered solar fridges and to my mind don’t have a place in the new world free of unreliable batteries. There is some conf  
Mohammad Tiu
  Informative post!Bill Gates and his wife Melinda's engagement to the different charity events is one of the calls that caught my interest to read this article. To be immunized of vaccine is one of the  
Toryalai Hart
  Wow James - Thanks for this fascinating post, particularly about the freeze drying of smallpox vaccine. Unfortunately, at least in W-Africa, storage rooms are typically built of cement blocks with a  
Toryalai Hart
  Corporate CSR is indeed an interesting angle but likely would prove complex if they were doing anything more than helping with cold chain logistics and storage? Some work is already being done on thi  
Ranjit Dhiman
  Thanks Tory for this nice initiative and great example of support to immunization programs. I believe it is time for countries to revisit the strategy of making and owning the infrastructure in terms  
Toryalai Hart
  If I were specifying equipment for a project, I would seek out a balance between autonomy and holdover, thus leading to maximum reliability for the lowest cost while distributing the risk of failure a  

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