Hi, I wanted to share some good news. Our mission partner Trinity Global Development sent a 40 ft container of supplies to their new Community Resource Center in Kenya. The container was recently delivered and the residents could not be happier.
Hey! Last week we supplied a hand-carried mission to Zambia. The mission group was from Northrise University Initiative which is an organization dedicated to providing financial, medical, and other assistance to the people of Zambia. The supplies were mostly for pediatric care and were sent to the Arthur Davidson Children's Hospital in Ndola, Zambia. The group was amazed at how much they were able to bring with them. The supplies arrived safely and are already being used.
A photo of the group with some of the supplies they brought was given to us, and here it is:
Hey guys! Just writing to tell you guys about the 5th annual MedSurplus conference. It will be held at the Hilton Post Oak Hotel (link here). Make sure you enter the code MSN so you can get the special rate of $119/night for the conference.
The conference will have speakers that will talk on a variety of subjects, from Social Media/Branding to the legal aspects of shipping our products. There will also be a panel to discuss Haiti relief and recovery efforts. You will also get the wonderful opportunity to tour the Texas Medical Center. This will include visiting the trauma center at Memorial Hermann.
Hey everyone! Just updating the blog again to let you know about some great feedback we heard from Mr. Mariano Montilla of the Philippines. He recently stopped by the office to visit and give us some feedback on a container they received. His feedback included a beautiful photo album, documenting receipt and use of the medical equipment and supplies donated by Medical Bridges.
They also presented us with a copy of the official resolution letter from the local government (Office of the Sanggunuang Panlalawigan) expressing "heart-felt thanks and appreciation to Medical Bridges for the donation of medical supplies and equipment to the Provincial Hospital of Agusan el Norte".
Lastly they presented us with the actual banner, signed by the staff of the hospital, that was flown the day the container was unloaded. Mr. Montilla is currently working on another order!
I'll keep you guys updated if we get any more news!
The staff of Medical Bridges recently welcomed Dr. Masood Hammed of Dow University of Health Sciences (Karachi, Pakistan) and Dr. Aijaz Hussain of Houston. Dr. Masood extended to Medical Bridges his heart-felt appreciation for the donation of much needed medical supplies for Pakistan. Dr. Masood presented Medical Bridges with a beautiful photo album showing how the material donated by Medical Bridges was used in their new facility in Pakistan. He has expressed interest in further working with Medical Bridges.
Hi everyone! This is Patrick. This post is just to let you guys know that the blog is changing authors. Roze has left Medical Bridges to pursue other personal interests and all of us at the office wish her well in her future endeavors!
We have not found a full time replacement yet so in the interim I will be the one updating the blog. We will continue to keep you updated with what's going on here and we should have more information coming soon.
One of our regular volunteers, Ed Kinsey, has written a song specifically for Medical Bridges! It's a fun, musical adaption of what we're all about.
A little background on Mr. Ed Kinsey...Ed has been a very valuable volunter at Medical Bridges. He has been honored several times for his commitment to our mission. He regularly comes in on Saturdays and is often seeing around the office during the workweek. Two years in a row, he's put in more than 700 hours a year making him a President's Volunteer Service Awards Gold recipient. Ed's been a valued volunteer since retiring as a police officer.
Here's the music video:
In case you missed some lyrics, here they are:
Medical Bridges is the place for me
counting catheters is fun you see
Under pads and diapers still make me smile
If suction drainage is your thing
we have ehough cannisters to make you sing
and suction tubing that will stretch a mile
From IV connectors to hospital beds to O.B. supplies, covers for your head
We send our stuff all over the world
Surgical basins and O.R. packs, blood collection tubes and pipette racks.
We have urine collectors for a boy or a girl.
If you're on a mission, going out of town.
Give Norm a call, he won't let you down.
Hand carry trips are his speciality.
He has exam gloves of every size.
He even has splash guards for your eyes
and guaze sponges for your wound dressing needs
From hospital gowns to specimen cups
Endoscopic and O.R. set ups; Tongue depressors and bedpans too
Recently we welcomed some very special volunteers from Gateway Academy in Houston, Texas. Shortly after their volunteer session, we received these thank you letters from a few of the children who had visited. We enjoyed them so much here at the office that I thought I'd share them with you.
(I transcribed each of the letters at the bottom of each letter.)
Enjoy. :)
Dear Medical Bridges,
Thank you allowing us to come help the community at Medical Bridges. I like to sort medical things. I like meeting people there. I like riding in a car to Medical Bridges. I learned to put things where they go.
Thanks again!
Dear Medical Bridges
Thank you for letting us come to Medical Bridges
I like to sort things and put them back where they were
I like drinking water at Medical Bridges
I like washing my hands at the end of sorting things
I learned how to put on my gloves
Dear Medical Bridges
Thank you for having us come sort medical supplies. I enjoyed coming in a working very hard I also enjoyed you talking about what you do I learned that they ship other medicens to other countries thats very interesting.
Our friends at Sagemont Church gave a shout out to Medical Bridges in their June 2010 Sagemont Life issue.
Sagemont has been very loyal volunteers in our sort room. They have often come in at short notice to help sort medical supplies and schedule regular volunteer sessions every month. As a result of their dedication, we have twice awarded Sagemont as our volunteer group of the year.
If you have trouble reading the scanned text, please visit our website and read the full article.
The staff here at Medical Bridges have been hard at work trying to do as much as possible to save precious medical supplies and equipment from local landfills and instead send them to people who desperately need them. Although it's barely the end of June, we've already sent 47 hand carried shipments and 17 forty-foot containers. The total replacement value of the 17 containers alone is over one million dollars!
But wait, there's more...
We have many more shipments in the works and hope that 2010 should be one of the most productive years in Medical Bridges' history. This year has been exciting in the office because we have made more multiple container deals than ever. Last year, we made our historic first multiple container deal to ship several containers to different countries on behalf of AEI. Now, less than six months later, we have officially signed another multiple container contract to be one of the main suppliers of a hospital in Nigeria on behalf of Dr. Ulu.
And let me tell you about our friend Dr. Ulu. He's an amazing man that has made it his own personal mission to build a small clinic in Nigeria. But, not only did he build an amazing hospital in a medically under served area, he also has dedicated several weeks of his year to personally go over there and work in the hospital. He already has a 10 container deal that will help keep his clinic supplied this year, and is preparing to sign another 10 container deal that will ensure supplies all the way till mid-2012.
Of course, Dr. Ulu is not our only friend that does great things. We also have projects coming along under the direction of our savvy business development manager Steve who has told me that he is in talks with a medical student who wants supplies to take with her while she works abroad for a semester. She is a student at Baylor College of Medicine and hopes to work in Ecuador at a hospice as well as two separate clinics. I'll keep you posted and let you know if this works out. Fingers crossed!
Also, Steve finally said goodbye to a shipment headed to Senegal. This shipment hit many bumps in the road before it was able to leave our warehouse. Fortunately, the shipment is finally destined for a children's hospital in a rural village that is on the same compound as a home for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. This compound also has a school attached. The hospital is used by the children who live on the compound as well as other children from the surrounding area. Steve hopes that he can arrange a multiple container deal with doctors at the hospital in order to keep the hospital viable to the community.
Maybe you remember from the news a couple of weeks back when Tropical Storm Agatha reeked havoc on Central America. Sink holes ate up entire communities and more than 145 people are reported dead. One of the hardest hit countries was Guatemala, with more than 120 people dead and another 40 missing. Agape in Action, a group that Medical Bridges regularly supplies for its missions across Central and South America, had just finished a mission in Guatemala but after hearing about the devastation, headed straight back to Guatemala to do what they could. Medical Bridges was happy to provide them with emergency medical supplies to aid in the mission. (Read more about the devastation left by Tropical Storm Agatha here).
Here's that video that I promised. It's a short video interview featuring missionary and Continental Airlines Captain Lynn Ripplemeyer. Lynn talks about her experiences working with Medical Bridges to bring medical supplies to villages in Honduras.
Medical Bridges is in the process of revamping its image on social networking sites and finding new and creative ways to keep all our friends informed of what's going on inside our warehouse and in the office. So what can you expect to see here? Well, anything! This will be the first go-to place for new and exciting up-to-the-minute news on Medical Bridges happenings. So, if you want to know everything about us, become a follower, subscribe to email alerts or make us a favorite using your browser controls. And of course...leave comments! We would love to hear what your thoughts are and will definitely appreciate any feedback.
In the immediate future you can expect a video interview from one of our friends, Lynn Ripplemeyer. She transports medical supplies to a small hospital in Honduras while traveling for work. She's a fabulous example of how doing a little can make a big impact on the world. I will post the video in a following posting, so take a minute and learn more about Lynn's travels.
And who am I? Well, my name is Roze and I am the one that will be managing Medical Bridges' online presence. It's a huge and daunting task but someone needs to do it! I'm up for the challenge. If you have any comments, thoughts or just want to say hello please feel free to leave a comment on here, or on our facebook page, or shoot me an email (roze.mota@medicalbridges.org).
I hope to pull some of my co-workers into posting as well. I'll leave it to them to introduce themselves as they begin their posts, otherwise assume that you're hearing from me. :)
