FIRE-AID INTERNATIONAL
- "Amb-Aid"
- Ambulance for India
Appeal
-
- In conjunction with
Cornwall based charity Action Water, Fire-Aid
International has launched an appeal to raise funds to
send a fully equipped ambulance to the Andhra Pradesh
region of India.
- The ambulance will be based
in the town of Bhimavaram which has a population in
excess of 500,000 but is only the size of Salisbury. It
has three hospitals but no proper ambulance.
There is much unemployment and the people are very poor.
Those that can find work are paid about £2 - £3 per
week. There is little industry and life is based around
rice growing and rearing animals. In the villages many
people live in mud huts or under canvas sheets tied to
trees. -
- Action Water has a growing
presence in the region and has provided hand operated
drinking water pumps, deep borewells, pipelines,
stainless steel water drums, toilets, urns and water
tankers and it is estimated that about 1,500,000 people
benefit directly from the provision of clean water which
the charity has been able to supply.
- But there is an urgent need
for ambulances as the three hospitals provide care and
emergency treatment for a vast population from a radius
in excess of 50 miles. With no proper ambulance available
patients have to be transported by bus or in the back of
a pick-up truck. Not the ideal way to carry a sick
patient !
- Fire-Aid International
intends to provide a fleet of Leyland-Daf 400 ambulances
which can be deployed throughout the region. These will
be secondhand refurbished vehicles which, where possible,
will carry new life saving and other medical equipment.
The first of these ambulances has been obtained and now
funds are urgently needed to send it to India.
Amb-Aid
/ Action Water's prototype Leyland Daf 400 / Wadham ambulance
E799 MOW before restoration; it was new to the Avon Ambulance
Service and was sold to the Capital Ambulance Service in London
who used it for paramedic cover on film sets; the vehicle has
appeared in various films and on TV.