Harnessing excess energy from telco sites to improve vaccine accessibility for remote communities.

Myanmar, 8 March 2019 – edotco Myanmar Limited (edotco Myanmar), the leading integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company, recently unveiled its latest Tower to Community initiative aimed at increasing the accessibility of life-saving vaccines in the country’s remote communities. In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sports (MoHS), UNICEF, as well as non-profit organisations Energize the Chain and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi), this initiative is set to boost the long-term prospect of Myanmar’s Immunisation Programme.

Dubbed as the ‘Child 5 project’, this community partnership extends the vaccine cold chain system into the Ayeyarwady region by rerouting excess electricity from edotco telecommunications structures to power up refrigeration systems for vaccine storage facilities, thereby prolonging its lifespan. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in five children die due to the lack of proper vaccination. The cold chain refers to the method of storing and transporting vaccines within the average optimum temperature of 2°C to 8°C to maintain their efficacy.

“Vaccine accessibility is often a challenge for Myanmar’s remote townships and villages as these parts are not connected to the grid. The lack of, or unreliable electricity supply restricts Rural Health Centres (RHC) from effectively storing and administering essential vaccines to residents which leads to unnecessary sickness from otherwise preventable diseases. Centred around edotco’s commitment to give back to communities around us, we hope our effort will be able to create a lasting positive impact to the lives of the residents here. We have kicked off with five sites for now and hope to be able to expand this to other areas of Myanmar as well as other countries in which we are present” said Vijendran Watson, Country Managing Director, edotco Myanmar.

Powered by edotco, the ‘Child 5 project’ could potentially benefit more than 3,000 children served by the RHCs near the five pilot tower sites in Maubin, Pyapon, and Bogale. Following the launch, the delivery, maintenance and administration of vaccines including Hepatitis B, BCG, Measles, and Oral polio will be carried out by officials from MoHS. Meanwhile, non-profit organisation Energize the Chain, UNICEF and MoHS will conduct a joint assessment to ascertain the impact of the Vaccination Cold-Chain Project.

Commenting on the collaboration, Dr Staffan Qvist, Director at Energize the Chain, said, “Child 5 project marks an extremely important milestone for Myanmar’s healthcare sector, pioneering a new concept of vaccine cold chain in the country. Beyond providing reliable cooling systems for vaccines in critical-need areas, these edotco pilot sites will serve as prototypes of cold chain installations in the country as they are equipped with sophisticated data monitoring and assessment equipment to verify the continued viability of vaccines. In this sense, the impact of these sites extends to more than increasing vaccines accessibility for the thousands of children today as the technology breakthrough is set to improve the entire country’s cold chain, potentially impacting millions of children in the future.”

These edotco storage solutions are made up of special walk-in brick shelters equipped with passive cooling solutions, and refrigeration systems that are able to preserve the integrity of vaccines regardless of the ambient temperature. It is designed to withstand the harshest weather conditions, even in searing heat where the temperature reaches up to 43°C.

edotco Myanmar is part of the edotco Group and are committed to enriching the lives of various communities in areas of its operations. edotco currently owns and manages over 29,500 towers across the six countries in which they have a presence. Over the past five years the company has been committed to ensuring the right sharable infrastructure is constructed and efficiently managed to assist mobile operators in delivering cost effective and seamless connectivity.

About edotco Group

Established in 2012, edotco Group is the first regional and integrated telecommunications infrastructure services company in Asia, providing end-to-end solutions in the tower services sector from tower leasing, co-locations, build-to-suit, energy, transmission and operations and maintenance (O&M).

edotco Group operates and manages a regional portfolio of over 29,500 towers across core markets of Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan with 17,000 towers directly operated by edotco and a further 11,500 towers managed through a range of services provided. edotco strives to deliver outstanding performance in telecommunications infrastructure services and solutions. Its state-of-the-art real-time monitoring service, echo, has driven significant improvements in field operations while maximizing operational efficiencies in terms of battery, energy and fuel consumption for telecommunications infrastructure.

edotco Group was recently awarded the Frost & Sullivan 2017 Asia Pacific Telecoms Tower Company of the Year Award for its demonstrated exemplary business growth and performance in Southeast Asia.

About Energize the Chain 

Energize the Chain (EtC) was founded to solve the missing link in vaccine delivery – the cold chain.  Vaccines must be kept cold from manufacture to administration to be effective. Keeping vaccines cold is extremely challenging in the developing world, where power is unreliable at best, unavailable at worst, placing the most vulnerable populations at risk.

EtC’s solutions create an economically and technologically sustainable energy infrastructure for effective transportation and storage of vaccines.  As mobile phone coverage blankets the globe, harnessing the energy of telecommunication towers continue to provide the source to achieve this infrastructure.

EtC has developed public-private partnerships with cell tower companies, ministries of health, Gavi and other non-profit organizations to ensure access to the energy, connectivity, and data needed to expand the vaccine cold chain into the developing world.  EtC envisions a world with universal access to effective vaccines and an end to senseless deaths from preventable diseases.

About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Created in 2000, Gavi is an international organisation – a global Vaccine Alliance, bringing together public and private sectors with the shared goal of creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children living in the world’s poorest countries. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the alliance was founded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ushering a new model where key UN agencies, governments, the vaccine industry, private sector and civil society can collaborate to improve childhood immunisation coverage in poor countries and to accelerate access to new vaccines.

Since Gavi was initiated in 2018, we have reached over 700 million children, preventing more than 10 million future deaths in the process. We aims to reach 300 million children between 2016 and 2020, preventing 5-6 million deaths over the long term. To do this, we support vaccine and health system strengthening programmes, shape markets and contribute to more sustainable immunisation efforts in the world’s poorest countries.