ADVANCE AID LINKS WITH AIDMATRIX ON AFRICAN EMERGENCY RELIEF SUPPLIES
LONDON, UK – March 8, 2010 – Advance Aid International and The Aidmatrix Foundation Inc. today announce that they have signed a Letter of Intent under which Aidmatrix will supply a range of its software solutions and services to Advance Aid including inventory management and a new programme for online ordering of aid supplies.
Advance Aid is a UK-registered charity and NGO (registered in 2007) dedicated to building employment levels and improving the quality of manufacturing throughout Africa. Advance Aid will build major warehouse hubs where emergency relief non-food items will be stored ready to be shipped when disaster strikes. These materials will be sourced from local manufacturers. A pilot project was carried out in Spring 2009 when Advance Aid teamed up with World Vision and pre-stored emergency relief goods in Mozambique. A number of the tarpaulins from this deployment have been used recently by World Vision in Malawi and Mozambique to help people hit by the earthquake in Malawi and flash floods in Mozambique.
This disaster preparedness initiative will: improve speed of response to an emergency by holding stocks locally; cut prices for NGOs by pre-positioning non-food items and purchasing when the market is quiet; reduce carbon emissions by eliminating air transportation and create jobs for African manufacturers.
The first warehouse hub is currently being built in Nairobi, Kenya and additional hubs in West and Southern Africa will support up to a dozen satellite warehouses that will be strategically placed in close proximity to the point of need.
“Managing our inventory efficiently, and allowing our customers real-time access to our stock levels is a critical part of our business plan,” says Advance Aid CEO David Dickie. “We want to make it possible for all of our NGO customers to be able to buy from us online. Advance Aid should be on the desktop of every emergency relief and logistics professional in Africa. Aidmatrix can make this possible and we are delighted to be partnering with them to help us deliver a 21st century solution to the provision of emergency relief materials”.
“The Aidmatrix Network suite, particularly inventory management and on-line ordering, will enable NGOs in Africa to view and to access inventory faster in emergencies,” says Shari Temple, Managing Director EMEA for the Aidmatrix Foundation.
