MedShare International

Before the Christmas season began in 2004, members of St. James UMC in Atlanta were busy packing, sorting and preparing a gift to the people of Ecuador—a 40-foot container of vital medical supplies.

For this project, the church partnered with the Association of Ecuadorians in Atlanta. Together, through MedShare International, a non-profit organization that provides medical supplies and equipment to economically developing countries, St. James sponsored the delivery of nearly 12,000 pounds of medical supplies worth approximately $100,000.

St. James established ist connection with MedShare in 1999, shortly after the organization was founded.

Church member Glen Reed, a lawyer who specializes in medical issues, heard about the organization through a friend and was soon invited to sit on MedShare's board of trustees.

"Along the way, I talked to friends at church about opportunities to volunteer," said Reed. "First, my Sunday school class started going to the warehouse and sorting supplies. Then we started talking about sponsoring a shipment."

"I talked it over with [the Rev. Jim Cantrell, church pastor] and he was very supportive of the idea," Reed continued. "We didn't have the money for it in the budget, so we held a special offering."

"It costs $15,000 just to get a container out the door," said Alyssa Gair, director of development for MedShare. MedShare arranges for two co-sponsors per shipment. The co-sponsors pledge $5,000 each, and MedShare covers the additional $5,000.

St. James was able to raise its portion of the funds, and in 2002 its first shipment went to the nation of Cameroon.

In 2003, St. James sponsored a second shipment, and in the fall of 2004 the container to Ecuador.

St. James' goal is to sponsor at least one shipment of medical supplies per year.

"This has been a really good program for us and would be a great opportunity for any church to extends its outreach from the local community to the international community," said Cantrell.

The shipment to Ecuador will go to two small hospitals in the rural area of Quevedo, where there is a serious lack of medical supplies and medical facilities are badly overcrowded. Included in the shipment are items ranging from crutches to surgical drapes to expensive equipment. Each MedShare shipment is customized to meet the particular needs in the developing country.

St. James volunteers are among many who go to MedShare's 25,000 square-foot distribution center, located just outside Decatur, to work with MedShare staff sorting, labeling, classifying, repairing and shipping the surplus medical supplies and equipment.

MedShare collects the surplus supplies from U.S. manufacturers, distributors and hospitals—including 15 Atlanta-area hospitals—and then deliver the goods to countries in need.

The medical supplies are new, valuable and needed, but would be discarded due to "procedural excess, regulatory requirements or production overage," according to Gair.

"For instance, if you were scheduled to have surgery, but didn't, the supplies that were purchased for your surgery are considered used and would be discarded," Gair said.

MedShare's purpose is two-fold. One mission is to afford U.S. healthcare providers a responsible way to dispose of surplus goods, but the primary focus is on helping alleviate the medical needs of developing nations worldwide.

In MedShare's short history, more than $16 million worth of supplies and equipment has been collected and distributed to over 73 countries, including Armenia, Guatemala, Tanzania, Argentina, Micronesia, El Salvador, Kenya, Bolivia, Belarus, Peru and Bulgaria.

"These medical items, so precious and welcome in the economically developing world, would most likely have ended up in an incinerator or a landfill in the United States," according to MedShare's Web site, www.medshare.org.

"Speaking as a member of St. James, the most amazing part of this ministry is that it's not hard to do. It's very interesting and you can be involved on so many levels," Reed explained.

For more information or to volunteer with MedShare, visit their Web site or call (770) 323-5858.