The guys at drone logistics company Swoop Aero have been good in 2020.

As a result, the drone Santa in Australia where the company’s headquarters is based, saw it fit to reward them for their sterling work.

For availing its drones to the humanitarian medicine delivery in Africa, Swoop Aero has been awarded the 2021 Australian Association of Unmanned Systems (AAUS) Humanitarian Achievement Award, which recognises organisations that demonstrate the role drone technologies plays in making the world a healthier and better place, by addressing global developmental challenges.

And Swoop Aero has done this impeccably in the last few years; working with partners like UNICEF, VillageReach and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to transport medical supplies across parts the remote, roadless and almost inaccessible rainforest in the Democratic Republic of Congo; as well as other remote areas in Malawi, Mozambique and the Central African Republic.

The company operates a sustained medical drone logistics network in Malawi, supporting the national Ministry of Health and Population tackle the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. In the DRC, where the company recently expanded its operation into the Equatuer province in the north west, Swoop Aero is also supporting the government curb and mitigate the resurgent Ebola epidemic in addition to the ongoing network operations with NGO partner VillageReach.

The company’s intervention as the most reliable form of autonomous air transport into the last and first-mile health chain has improved the reliability of health care delivery and distribution of essential supplies such as vaccines, routine medications, urgent pathology samples, and PPE equipment.

“We are proud to accept the Award which recognises Swoop Aero’s achievements in the realm of impact-driven activities in low and middle-income countries,” said Eric Peck, CEO and co-founder of Swoop Aero. “To date, we have improved the accessibility and availability of essential health supplies for over 1 million people across the world from Vanuatu to Malawi, DR Congo and Mozambique. As we continue to scale-up our impact, we remain on track of reaching 100 million people with sustainable drone logistics by 2025. Our platform has been trusted by some of the largest players in global health, including UNICEF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, USAID and UKAID.”

In recent months, Swoop Aero has been making inroads into the busy airspaces of European skies, starting operation in in Scotland with its UK air mobility partner Skyports. The later has been using Swoop Aero drones to support the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland deliver essential COVID-19 samples and vaccinations to remote localities in the Highlands and Isles of Scotland.

Swoop Aero also recently announced that it was starting a pilot project in Queensland, Australia alongside TerryWhite Chemmart. Funded by Australia’s largest healthcare wholesaler, Symbion, the project aims to deliver routine medications to farmers and remote communities along the rural Queensland and New South Wales borders.

The drone logistics company are the third to recipients of the award, following on the footsteps of 2019 inaugural winners, Team Mobility, and last year’s recipient, John Fardoulis of Mobility Robotics.

According to the AAUS, the Humanitarian Achievement awards seeks to recognise individuals or organisations that demonstrate the role unmanned technologies can play in bettering our world through humanitarian operations. Organisations will be judged based on the nature of their humanitarian programmes, the people involved, the programme beneficiaries and why the programme was needed in the first place.

The judges will also assess the results of the humanitarian operation and its overall impact on the society in which it was implemented.