Sharing can make a world of difference!

www.medshare.org

MedShare International has a dual mission of providing humanitarian medical aid to economically developing countries and of helping to improve our local environment. Since 1998, MedShare has shipped over $50 million worth of surplus medical supplies and equipment to hospitals and clinics around the world while saving 925,000 cubic feet of landfill space.

Building Hope in Haiti

by Nancy Koziol

MedShare's medical supplies will improve the
quality of health care for many in Gonaïves, Haiti.

La Providence, the only hospital in Gonaïves, Haiti, a city with more than 300,000 inhabitants, was devastated by Hurricane Jeanne in 2004. Since the storm hit, the hospital buildings have been deteriorating, power has been unpredictable, and government funding has been unreliable. The only patients that La Providence is currently able to serve are those who can pay for their own treatment. That represents, at best, 20 percent of the population.

For the last eight years, The St. Mary-Corwin Foundation in Pueblo, Colorado, has been conducting annual medical missions to Gonaïves. The foundation’s long-term commitment to improving healthcare in this remote and needy area has been greatly bolstered by a three-year grant from Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), a national health care system which also regularly ships surplus medical supplies to MedShare. However, the aid that the organizations can provide is limited by an insufficient quantity of health care supplies available in Haiti. Last month, a 40-foot MedShare container arrived in Gonaïves specifically to address this problem. Half of the inventory from the recently-arrived MedShare container will be used for La Providence hospital, and half will be used to stock a new institution, St. Basil’s Clinic.

The new clinic is the result of the combination of efforts by the St. Mary-Corwin Foundation, with funding from CHI, leadership by Haitian doctor Roger Jean-Charles, and the acquisition of medical supplies and equipment from MedShare. Another MedShare shipment is scheduled for this summer, and will arrive shortly after the clinic’s opening.

With the increased amount of medical supplies, patients of the clinic will now be able to receive treatment and medical care free of charge. This gives new hope to the 20 physicians at La Providence and the 1.2 million people who live in the area that the hospital serves. To further expand the availability of care and providers, Dr. Jean-Charles has also worked to open a nursing school to train a new generation of healthcare providers. His future plans include launching a medical school to educate and train physicians who will work to reverse the downward trend in Haiti’s health care system.

Through partnerships like those with the St. Mary-Corwin Foundation, MedShare’s recovered surplus medical supplies and equipment will continue to significantly affect a countless number of lives.

To see video footage of the container arrival in Gonaïves, click here.

Make your gift today! Help MedShare get life-saving supplies to struggling health care facilities like those in Gonaïves.

Happy Earth Day!

So far this year, MedShare’s 40-foot container shipments have saved about 51,200 cubic feet of space in landfills.

Shipment Update

During the month of March, MedShare International shipped containers filled with vital medical supplies and equipment to healthcare institutions in different countries. The recipients were:

• Democratic Republic of the Congo
  Hospital Nseke
• Jamaica
  Food for the Poor
• Jamaica
  Food for the Poor
• Jamaica
  Food for the Poor

For more information and ways to support MedShare International,
please visit www.medshare.org or call 770-323-5858.