HAMPSHIRE: Hampshire County Council is planning to send urgent supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to Nepal.
It comes in response to a major wave of coronavirus that has hit the country – and follows a request by Rushmoor Borough Council on behalf of Nepali community leaders in Hampshire.
The Rushmoor district has the largest concentration of Nepalis in the UK and the second-highest Nepali population after London.
Rushmoor Borough Council has a sister city relationship with the Gorkha Municipality in Nepal, which is part of the wider Gorkha district.
At his Decision Day meeting on 8 July, Hampshire County Council Leader, Councillor Keith Mans, will consider the Authority’s response to Rushmoor’s request.
It is proposed that the County Council donates a proportion of its surplus purchased PPE stock to the Gorkha municipality which the council says has been significantly impacted by the pandemic and is currently in lockdown.
Councillor Mans said: “There is a strong connection between Rushmoor residents and this area of Nepal, mainly due to the strong military and Gurkha regiments based in and around Aldershot.
“Having been approached by the Leader of Rushmoor Borough Council, Councillor David Clifford, seeking our support in their mutual aid work with the Gorkha municipality in Nepal, and hearing from community leaders in this part of Hampshire that PPE is not reaching some areas in most need, we must do what we can to support the country’s efforts to battle this virus.
“We hope that by donating some of the surplus PPE items we have purchased over the last year, such as face masks, gloves, and gowns, it can help to make a positive difference to the urgent aid efforts on the ground in Nepal – where almost a third of the population live in poverty and deprivation.”
At the start of the pandemic, the County Council established a large PPE warehouse and distribution center to support the health and social care sectors.
It says, however, that with supplies now available free of charge from Government and a significant drop in demand for equipment from the Hampshire warehouse, there is a surplus supply of PPE that had been bought by the Council, which is unlikely to be used before its expiry date next Spring.
The Council says it will continue to retain a crucial reserve supply of PPE on behalf of the county’s Local Resilience Forum – a multi-agency partnership made up of representatives from local public services including emergency services, councils, the NHS, Environment Agency, and others, who work together to respond to civil emergencies and major incidents.
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