June 30, 2010 was the last day of MedShare’s fiscal year, and a day of celebration, because for the first time we exceeded our annual shipments goal by shipping 103 forty-foot containers filled with life-saving medical supplies and equipment to needy hospitals around the world. This comes out to approximately 600 tons of requested medical supplies and equipment that were delivered to needy hospitals in 36 countries. This represents a 30% increase over the 79 containers MedShare was able to send during the last full fiscal year and is a symbol of the increased capacity provided by MedShare’s new distribution center in Northern California.
MedShare has formed strong partnerships that contributed to this accomplishment, and in addition to meeting the ongoing need for supplies in medically underserved areas, we responded to emergency requests that proved our capabilities as an organization. In the past, MedShare has not been an organization that responds first to a disaster; however, when we were called upon by our partners and friends this year, we quickly responded to the emergency medical needs resulting from several natural disasters.
“MedShare not only did what we normally do well, but when disasters struck and recipients called on us for help, we stretched ourselves in order to get the medical supplies and equipment to them in a timely manner that saved lives,” said Josh Kravitz, MedShare COO.
Last October, the Western Region Distribution Center responded within hours to the medical needs resulting from a devastating earthquake and tsunami that pounded American Samoa. We worked tirelessly to ship requested medical supplies to the public health department in American Samoa. We also provided three relief shipments to aid earthquake victims in Chile, but our biggest disaster response was to the January 12th earthquake in Haiti.
Medical supplies were the number one need in Haiti immediately following the earthquake, and we jumped into action to answer their call for help. We faced many logistical challenges, but with overwhelming outside support, MedShare was able to get our first two shipments of almost 24,000 pounds of medical supplies to Haiti just three days after the earthquake. During those crucial days and weeks of the relief efforts, the entire MedShare team worked in overdrive meeting requests for medical supplies from hospitals, organizations and medical mission teams. Two weeks following the earthquake, we had already sent 11 shipments, equal to about 66 tons, of medical supplies to treat earthquake victims.
Also contributing to our annual goal, was the shipment of our largest piece of medical equipment-a mobile CT scanner. The scanner was donated by Catalina Imaging, and was too large to even fit into a standard 40-foot shipping container. We made special shipping arrangements and it was shipped to Zimbabwe, where only two working CT scanners were present in their public health system.
“This is a MedShare first to not only exceed 100 shipments in a year, but to exceed our annual shipments goal. To reach our goal took a major effort, and there are no 'bit' players, only stars at MedShare. There is not a single employee, volunteer, Board member, Council member, donor that is not crucial to achieving our mission and goals. It truly is a giant team effort,” said A.B. Short.
