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While visiting hospitals in Uganda, MedShare volunteer
Enid (L) was able to meet patients and see the urgent
need for improved medical care.
MedShare’s volunteers are often inspired by our mission, as they learn that the medical supplies they are sorting will eventually end up in needy healthcare institutions all over the world. However, sometimes the MedShare volunteers themselves are the ones who provide the most touching stories.
Enid Mpumwire Machayo is one such person. She found out about MedShare through meeting Nell Diallo, MedShare’s Executive Director for Corporate and International Relations, and joined the hundreds of volunteers who help sort medical supplies at MedShare each month. Enid quickly made the link between the surplus surrounding her in MedShare’s sort room and the great needs that exist in her home village of Rutooma, Uganda, where she lived until moving to the U.S. in 1985. In October of last year, she took on the personal goal of getting a forty-foot container of medical supplies to hospitals in Rutooma and the neighboring village of Rubindi, Uganda.
“I have had the privilege of visiting five hospitals in Ankole district, Kashari County, in the country of Uganda, and I have seen the reality of a lack of basic medical supplies and equipment. That is why I am so passionate about the gap MedShare is filling in some of the poorest communities around the world today,” said Enid. “For some places, this is the only way that great needs can be met.”
When visiting Uganda in order to perform a needs-assessment and gather stories and photos from the area, Enid found patients sleeping on the floor, pediatric wards overflowing with women and children, and many families devastated by the HIV virus. Staff members were surrounded by barren supply shelves and equipment in disrepair. She simply could not turn away and do nothing.
The scarcity of supplies makes it almost
impossible to perform sterile surgeries in
this operating room at Rubindi Hospital.
Now, Enid is working hard to raise funds for a container shipment. So far, she has personally raised $5,000 by working with dedicated individuals in Uganda. She estimates that the medical supplies and equipment could impact as many as 10,000 people when shared among five hospitals serving people in ten different villages. When the container finally arrives, Enid will be there in person to meet the container and help with the distribution of the supplies.
Inspired by their mother, Enid’s two sons have also started volunteering at MedShare. Whenever our volunteers spread the word, give us their time, or take on personal endeavors, we remember why we consider each volunteer an essential member of the MedShare family.
To help Enid with her efforts to send a container to Uganda, please click on the link below:
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Shipment Update
During the month of May, MedShare International shipped containers filled
with vital medical supplies and equipment to healthcare institutions in
different countries. The recipients were:
- Ghana
University of Cape Coast Hospital
- Ecuador
Cañar Provincial Hospital
- Ecuador
Pastaza Hospital
- Ghana
University of Cape Coast Hospital
- Various
Latter Day Saints Humanitarian Aid Center
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