Afrika Umoja, an initiative initiated by Cape Town temporary architecture specialists, HOTT3D and pan-African energy event organiser Africa Oil & Power (AOP), is tackling the Covid-19 threat in its home city and across Africa. Afrika Umoja aims to build temporary hospitals, clinics and homeless shelters to combat the coronavirus, in partnership with government, the private sector and local entrepreneurs.
The venture applies HOTT3D’s design, construction and project management expertise to building medical facilities within days, in potentially any location across Africa. AOP is supporting Afrika Umoja through marketing, communications and outreach to its network of partners.
“The coronavirus pandemic has had a dramatic impact on companies in the events industry globally, but these highly skilled people and organizations can be redeployed. Instead of designing and building complex exhibition and conference infrastructure, we are now able to very quickly design and build temporary emergency medical infrastructure” says Liam Beattie, managing director of HOTT3D.
Afrika Umoja is in discussions with provincial authorities and is ready to build at short notice in South Africa and internationally.
“It’s exciting to be able to work with HOTT3D, as we have done for exhibitions and conferences in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan and South Africa for years, on providing national and provincial governments with solutions for the challenge of building high quality medical facilities and accommodation, wherever they are on the continent,” notes James Chester, acting CEO of AOP.
Afrika Umoja invites provincial and national governments and firms interested in building or funding temporary medical buildings and shelters to contact the team. The organisation is also keen to welcome more vendors and suppliers to join the project, whether they are based in Cape Town or further afield
