In these surreal and, at times, frightening times of the coronavirus crisis, I draw hope from all the heart-warming initiatives that are springing up. People are offering each other comfort and distraction, but above all practical help. And all these initiatives are coming to fruition at breakneck speed. The sense of connection fostered by social media is a huge help in this regard. One admirable example is Project Open Air NL. This is a network of a growing group of manufacturers from the Dutch manufacturing industry who are making their expertise and production capacity available to the medical sector.
Call via Linkedin
A proportion of COVID-19 hospital patients need artificial ventilation. However, acute shortages of ventilation equipment and parts for it exist in places where the pandemic is spreading. Engineers who have joined Project Open Air NL are ready to produce breathing equipment and parts that are desperately needed in healthcare now. Through a LinkedIn call from initiator Tijn Kooijmans, I learned that he was urgently looking for a high contact at the Ministry of Health. He asked if, given time constraints, as many people as possible wanted to share his call.
Useful relationships
I jumped right out of the starting blocks, sharing the call on Linkedin and Twitter and tagging people in my network who might have useful relationships for this project. Via Twitter, I was immediately hooked. Erik Gerritsen, Secretary-General at the Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sport, would be the right man in the right place. He was tagged in a response to my tweet, which brought the issue to his attention. Erik Gerritsen responded immediately. He passed on his direct e-mail address with a request to e-mail him. Within half an hour, Tijn was in contact with the highest official at the Ministry of Health. A great example of the power of social media in times of crisis.
Knowledge and clout needed
With the successfully concluded search for the senior VWS official, Project Open Air NL is not done yet. The network makes itself available for direct enquiries from the healthcare sector, but also for other initiatives. Companies, universities and healthcare institutions are joining in from all sides and the first projects are already underway.
Due to the growing demand for engineering and production capacity, they could do with even more expertise and resources. Are you an engineer or do you run a business with potentially relevant production capacity? Join Project Open Air NL. They are also looking for the following specialists:
- Crowd Funding Project Manager; to manage the crowdfunding campaign to be launched soon via OnePlanetCrowd
- PR Manager; to manage media and press contacts
- Legal support; liability law
- Financial/accounting support
Are you helping?
If we join hands, it is possible to produce quickly and on a large scale what is needed to help corona patients. And that is why it is important that we work together to bring this initiative to the attention of as many people as possible. Do you also want to harness the power of social media and give Project Open Air NL access to your network? Then please share information about this project now.
