Students from an institute in Vigo transform a container into an energetically self-sufficient clinic

2023-10-16 18:21:28

Four years ago, Pedro García, professor of Welding and Boilermaking and Structures at the Valentín Paz Andrade Integrated Vocational Training Center in Vigo, had an idea that would involve practically the entire center: transform a port merchandise container into a mobile health center for deliver it to the NGO Health for Africa.

“It seemed interesting to us to help this NGO that is involved in helping women and children. We discovered the needs they had to offer a more sanitized space in which to care for pregnant women and children and we designed this space prepared to be mobile, although the The NGO hopes to place it in a central town in Senegal, with good access, to cover all the nearby villages,” he explains.

This transformation has had the participation of a hundred students and a dozen teachers from Paz Andrade, but also with the help of numerous collaborating companies. The first was Comarsa, which donated the container. “It is six meters long and unfolds to a surface of between 30 and 40 square meters,” explains Ubaldo Costas, one of the professors who coordinates the project.

The project was launched in 2019

Many students have been through this project since it was launched in 2019. “Covid caught us with everything just set up and slowed down the pace a lot,” Pedro tells us. But that rhythm has been recovered by students from all the professional families taught at this Vigo center, like Noelia. She is finishing her higher education in carpentry. Her work has consisted of “the design of the kitchen and installation of flooring.” She assures that the best thing about participating in this project is “the union that has been created between students and teachers from all branches, because here we learn to value the work of colleagues from other specialties.” Joel comes from the higher cycle of metal constructions and agrees with Noelia: “we have learned to have initiative, to solve the problems that arise on a daily basis, in each task, and to work as a team with a solidarity goal; everything is being very enriching “.

“Now we are 90% ready, but we have gone a little further,” explains Pedro, who reveals that “we want to go one step further and make this small clinic energy self-sufficient.” To do this, he tells us, they will have to install “photovoltaic panels and an air conditioning system that will allow them to have a better quality of care for users.” And he calls on companies that want to help in this almost final step. Because the last step will be to paint. “A colleague from the automotive cycle will make graffiti on the outside of the container with an emblematic image of Vigo to give a little color and joy to this small health center.”

Mechanical manufacturing, Installation and maintenance, Wood and furniture, Energy and water and Transport and maintenance are the professional families that live together in this vocational training center and have carried out this solidarity transformation. “We hope, with great desire and enthusiasm, to be able to finish it and deliver it before summer,” says Pedro.