Safety Measures for Illness Prevention
At Walkabout Resources, we prioritise the safety and wellbeing of our employees and contractors above all else. To enable our current mine development activity to commence, we appreciate that thorough practices needed to be implemented and maintained, minimising risk of harm to workers, contractors and immediate communities in the region surrounding our Lindi Jumbo graphite project.
Standard practices to date have included:
- Development of an internal COVID-19 policy, distributed among the Lindi Jumbo team to enable better management and understanding of the virus in the context of a developing project
- Practising social distancing wherever it is fair or reasonable to do so
- Mandatory mask wearing on site for all unvaccinated persons
- Thorough cleaning and hygiene measures to minimise risk
- Temperature screening
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Walkabout's Tanzanian Vaccination Program for Education and Inoculation Betterment
In addition to this standard practice has been the implementation of our Lindi Jumbo vaccination program. As a mining company, we acknowledge that we have a unique opportunity to leverage resources and relationships, enabling greater health and safety outcomes in the communities that we operate.
In partnership with local district health authorities, Walkabout Resources have been able to initiate a weekly, recurring COVID-19 information and vaccination program where medical experts provide education on globally accepted health advice so that individuals can make an informed decision as to whether they receive the vaccine.
Encouraging uptake has been one facet to this program – as misinformation or a lack of information has previously seen low inoculation levels in remote Tanzanian communities.
The other challenge for those who live in more isolated communities is accessibility to vaccination clinics. Part of Walkabout’s engagement with the local district health authorities has seen the company transporting a team of qualified health professionals 20km from Ruangwa to site and back on a weekly basis. These individuals can give out the vaccine on site to willing participants, eliminating the need to book and travel to a clinic.
Planning to extend the reach of the program is now in place between the District Medical Officer and the Lindi Jumbo team. The intention is to provide these same COVID sessions to villages surrounding Lindi Jumbo. Once implemented, the program could benefit up to 8,000 locals.
