PinkDrive, corporate SA join hands to roll out vaccination programme to rural communities

PinkDrive has secured funding from Absa, the Rand Water Foundation, Standard Bank and Aspen Pharmacare to provide vaccinators to the public sector vaccination sites in Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

4 Aug 2021

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The non-profit organisation says that this will assist with the acceleration of delivering the vaccine to communities through its mobile medical teams and employing previously unemployed nurses and drivers.

In his most recent address to the nation, President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated that an average of 300,000 people need to be vaccinated per day to reach the required rate for herd immunity. To amplify the process, the National Department of Health (NDoH) has recognised that it will need to access resources from the private sector and civil society and has therefore appealed to PinkDrive to assist in rolling out the vaccine to rural community clinics through its mobile medical teams.

PinkDrive is mandated to coordinate, administer and manage Rand Water’s corporate social investment (CSI) resources by undertaking community development projects in partnership with various donors to support government initiatives in bringing services to communities.

PinkDrive CEO and founder Noelene Kotschan commented: “While the organisation’s historical role has been cancer detection, in these times of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has broadened its mission to prevent the further spread of the virus Covid-19. In addition to screening and testing in 2020, we are now ready to tackle the vaccination rollout.”