For those of us in the tech community largely away from the front line of the fight against COVID-19, staying at home and avoiding spreading the disease is essential but beyond this are there other ways we can help? The answer fortunately is yes!
Donate
Support the NHS Charities COVID-19 Appeal and encourage others to do the same. NHS Charities are providing everything from housing and transport to food and medical supplies to our front line workers.
Some of the PPE Face Shields in production
Help to produce PPE
To assist with the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for front line healthcare staff and other key workers, a number of members of the Tech Nottingham community are working together to 3D Print PPE face shields.
We’ve have great results so far with hundreds of masks delivered already!
Special shout out to Tech Nottingham community member Mark Goodwin who has produced the majority of these and has been supporting others in this effort!
If you have a 3D Printer and would like to get involved, join us in the #covid-19-tech channel on the Tech Nottingham Slack group.
Our efforts are a part of a much larger effort by the Nottingham Hackspace to produce PPE for the local area, you can donate to the materials fund for this project.
Thank you to the support of Hackathon Notts and @technottingham with @BBCNottingham in sourcing visors for our clinicians to use to keep us and our patients safe during #COVID19
— DrGandalf (@drgandalf52) April 12, 2020
We wouldn't have been able to see as many patients if we didn't have these. pic.twitter.com/Niobs4C7uZ
Many thanks to @technottingham for providing Elmswood Surgery #Sherwood #Nottingham with 10 super face shields, much appreciated!! pic.twitter.com/95nHsU7LZJ
— Dr Irfan Malik (@dr_irfan_malik) April 9, 2020
Join the Tech Nottingham Folding@Home team
You can donate your CPU & GPU cycles to the scientific work around COVID-19. Sign up to Folding@Home and join team number 258322, then join us in the #foldingathome channel on the Tech Nottingham Slack group.
“An update from the Tech Nottingham Folding@Home team, for only having been live a week we are now ranked 10,917 out of 249,560... which is huge!” - Josh on Slack
Make Medical Scrubs
For those of you into sewing and making clothing there is now a Nottingham branch of ScrubHub for volunteers to make scrubs for the doctors and nurses: https://scrubhub.org.uk/category/east-midlands/
Once you’re signed up join us in the #craft channel on the Tech Nottingham Slack group.
Support your fellow community members
Tech Nottingham community members supporting each other in the before-times
Like a lot of people, many of our community are isolated and working from home for the first time, support your fellow community members by listening, talking and sharing advice in our #remote and #working-life channels on the Tech Nottingham Slack group.
The conversations and the community spirit is at the heart of all of our events and that remains true of our remote events. Right now that’s needed more than ever.
We’re ensuring our Tech Nottingham and Women in Tech events continue to be interactive community gatherings, where you can meet people, talk, exchange ideas and learn new things.
Join us at our next event, Tech Nottingham on Monday 20th April to participate!