MedShare gives aid to Asia

CrossRoads - Nearly 500,000 people in Tajikistan, one of the poorest countries in central Asia, will get needed medical supplies this spring because of a collaboration between Lithonia-based MedShare International and its partners.

MedShare, which is based on 5053 Chatooga Drive, the SIBF Global Network Foundation in Atlanta, and Washington-based Counterpart International loaded more than 500 boxes of medical supplies and equipment onto a container on Teusday to ship.

According to UN estimates, 80 percent of Tajikistan's population is poor and the remaining 20 percent live below the poverty line. There is a pressing need for medical supplies among its children, women, elderly and disabled populations.

AB Short, MedShare's CEO, said MedShare's mission is to help countries like Tajikistan with urgently needed medical supplies and equipment.

Atlanta residents Angie and Sam Allen and Joel Cowan have assumed lead roles in coordinating the effort with MedShare. All have served as facilitators for the Central Eurasia Leadership Alliance (CELA), a joint undertaking of the EastWest Institute and the Society of International Business Fellows (SIBF).

Joel Cowan, chairman of Habersham & Cowan, Inc., said that in the four years that he has visited the central Asian countries he has become impressed with their enormous potential on one hand, and distressed with the extreme poverty on the other.

"Our mission is to train local leaders to ultimately improve their quality of life," he said. "They can do it, but they do need physical supplies, particularly in the healthcare field," he said.

The non-profit MedShare International has been providing humanitarian medical aid to economically developing countries since 1998. It collects medical surplus from area hospitals and redistributes them to underserved hospitals and clinics.

Since its founding, it has shipped $25 million worth of medical supplies and equipment to hospitals and clinics in economically developing countries.