After 6 months of preparation of 1,900 separate items and packages, on March 25th, we shipped 40’ ocean container #102 to Zimbabwe. This involves a lot of preplanning so that items to be packed are readily available from our storage trailers. The 10 tons of critical medical supplies includes simple things like dressings and catheters to more complicated medical equipment like ECG machines, fetal monitors and ultrasounds. As well are all the widows and orphan supplies, including clothing, dishes, cooking pots, school supplies, gardening tools, carpentry tools, sewing machines and basic furniture.
As you can see from the picture our packing team makes sure we don’t pay to ship air! Previously we mentioned looking at cheaper ways to ship but after taking everything into consideration our present system is as economical as any alternative in the long run. That said, due to some generous donors we are “only” short $7,000 in our “MEMO Bank” to pay the anticipated $32,000 for shipping this container.
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Meanwhile we have been busy shipping suitcases full of medical supplies for tourists traveling to Cuba. So far this year about one ton of supplies by this means have been sent. One interesting anecdote: Our contact person in Cuba, Dr. Abel Santana wrote and asked if we could get pacemakers for heart patients in Matanzas. In Cuba, pacemakers are removed from patients who die and are re-used as long as the batteries are still working. (Battery life is up to 10 years.) They had eventually run out of functioning pacemakers. A new pacemaker in Canada costs about $10,000 just for the unit. In Canada when a person is cremated the pacemaker must be removed first. I contacted our local funeral homes and within two days had 80! It is a win-win situation as this saves the funeral home the cost of toxic waste disposal from the batteries. These pacemakers will be carried to Cuba, a few at a time, over the last month of the tourist season. A bit gruesome, but will save lives in Cuba.
Thanks for your interest, prayers and financial support.
Jerome