Donating essential supplies to Samut Prakan field hospital amid Thailand’s worst COVID-19 outbreak

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Thailand, Toll Thailand recently launched Project SMILE in response to the deteriorating situation in their country in an effort to support local communities. The team rallied together to collect more than ฿240,000 (approx. A$10,000) to donate medical equipment, food, and essential supplies to a field hospital in Samut Prakan, and other local hospitals.

The number of COVID-19 cases started to rise sharply in July as Thailand accelerated vaccinations and raced to secure temporary field hospitals to support COVID-19 treatment.

In the Samut Prakan area, where 85% of our Thai workforce operate and reside in, new infections were also on the rise while public and private hospitals were running out of beds. A further two field hospitals in operation have already reached their total capacity and could no longer take in more patients.

Given the proximity to several of our Toll sites and employees’ residences, together with our long history in the Samut Prakan area, Toll employees initiated SMILE campaign to support the new 1,300-bed facility which opened at Samut Prakan Ruamjai 5 in mid-July.

Many employees, including operations staff, donated what little they could afford to support the cause. Within a month, the team gathered the donations, secured over 37,600 essential items, and sent them to the new field hospital.

We are now gathering even more essential supplies to be sent to three other local hospitals in the area.

At Toll, we believe that business is not measured purely in financial terms. We also believe that the way we go about achieving our success is as important as success itself. The role of logistics within local communities is far-reaching and every small effort goes a long way.