This Is How Ubuntu Beds Is Assisting Frontline Health Workers
This Is How Ubuntu Beds Is Assisting Frontline Health Workers. Everyone has seen how Covid-19 has crippled the Italian health system. Lombardy, a region in Northern Italy, was the epicentre of their Corona Pandemic. When Kim Whitaker, founder of Ubuntu Beds, asked a Doctor from Lombardy what they would have done five weeks ago, he responded, “I would have arranged accommodation for the doctors and nurses in the now-closed hotels.” Healthcare workers were exhausted and unable to return home for fear of infecting their families, as a result, they were sleeping poorly and burning out.
It was on this insight that Ubuntu Beds was founded. Ubuntu beds is an initiative to unite hospitality businesses with healthcare workers fighting Covid-19 on the front lines. Hostels, hotels, BnB’s, and guest-houses will be able to offer safe harbour to doctors and nurses. By ensuring that tired healthcare workers don’t need to travel long journeys home to their families, Ubuntu Beds can ensure the safety of more South Africans.
Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has grown exponentially, and the risk to healthcare workers is real. In this time of need, it is committed to helping those who put their lives on the line for the community, in the spirit of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Nguni Bantu term meaning “humanity.” It is often translated as “I am because we are,” or “humanity towards others,” or in Xhosa, “umntu ngumntu ngabantu ” it also means: “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.” Hospitals are geared for medical emergencies, and have jumped into action to provide a safe environment for their teams.
However, a great risk for healthcare workers globally, is the commute to and from the hospitals after their shifts, and the fear of bringing the virus home to family and loved ones. This strategy began in China and is being adopted globally as the pandemic unfolds. Ubuntu Beds offers rooms to nurses, doctors and healthcare workers around South Africa who are at the frontline of fighting the virus, so they may protect their own families and lower commute times. Its own hospitality staff will stay onsite, have to undergo Covid-19 specific training and be issued protective gear for their safety.
