Drones are saving lives in Kigali

I met with Micheal, a student at the University of Kigali and we were discussing how technology can help to improve the life of an average African. He told me about Zipline, an organization using drones to deliver blood to health centers in remote villages.

According to Micheal “Instead of waiting for the government to build roads, we can just fly over to any health center, drop a pile of blood and a life is saved”.

About Zipline

Zipline operates the world’s only drone delivery system at national scale to send urgent medicines, such as blood and vaccines, to those in need — no matter where they live.

A Zipline drone taking flight.

From what I found out on Zipline’s website;

“Hospitals used to take multiple hours to pick up blood at a regional center. Now blood is delivered directly to the facility in less than 30 minutes. Ultimately, Rwanda’s vision is to put all 12 million citizens within 30 minutes of any essential medical products.”

Life gave Alice Mutimutuje a second chance through this technology. This was her testimony;

“I used to see the drones fly and think ‘they must be mad’, until the same drone brought me blood and saved my life.”

                            Zipline in Rwanda (source: Zipline Youtube Channel)

Through Government support & partnership, it is easier for social enterprises to attain scalability and impact. There’s a lot more the government can do to save lives.

Here in Nigeria, we have LifeBank, an organization using healthcare technology to deal with the problem of blood shortage. They have saved over 1527 lives! Read more about them here www.lifebank.ng

I think we need more life saving initiatives.