Former back-up generator donated to charity

An old back-up generator, replaced as part of an upgrade project in Kent, has arrived in Nigeria to be re-used by The Freedom Foundation, a charity supporting vulnerable people.

As health services provided at Faversham Hospital and Health Centre have expanded over the years, site owners NHS Property Services Ltd (NHSPS) identified that the facility’s 30-year-old back-up generator needed upgrading to provide sufficient power to keep services running if the mains supply failed.

The project, carried out in April and May of 2018, means the facility is now more resilient in the event of a power failure.

The work was carried out by engineering and construction firm J. Murphy & Sons Ltd, of London, and was project managed by project management and quantity surveying company Oander, of Horley, Surrey.

During the project, Murphy project manager, Kalpana Patel, investigated alternative methods of re-using the old generator rather than following the standard approach of scrapping it.

Patel and Oander’s project director, Ben Davies, contacted NGOs, with the Freedom Foundation of Lagos, Nigeria, expressing an interest.

Kalpana said: “From my experience of working in Sub-Sahara Africa, a generator like this can elevate peoples’ lives. This donation is a fantastic outcome from an already successful engineering project.”

The Freedom Foundation operates a number of programmes, providing education, support, guidance, training, rehabilitation and healthcare to vulnerable people including young women, children and members of society who need support.

With Nigeria suffering in excess of 30 power outages per month, any working standby generator is a great benefit.

The generator was shipped to Nigeria in August 2018 and successfully arrived in January 2019.  Upon receiving the generator, Adeshola Bello, Freedom Foundation’s Coordinating Manager, wrote to the teams involved: “We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for this very generous donation. As you may be aware, electricity generation is one of the most formidable challenges that we have in Nigeria. This Generator will therefore, contribute immensely to providing electricity in one of our facilities on a regular basis and for a long time to come.”

Murphy and Oander decided to share the shipping cost to assist the Freedom Foundation due to large import levies.

Davies said: “This was a challenging project and was successfully delivered, but it has had extra benefits with the donation of the old generator, which would normally have been scrapped, to people who need it.”

Catherine Webster, Senior Construction Manager at NHSPS, added: “This investment in Faversham has provided a new stand-by generator which is much more powerful than the old one and would provide enough power to maintain all the services at facility in the event of a mains power failure. We’re pleased that the old generator is being donated to a good cause.”