Dear MEMO supporters,
It is time to reflect on what has been accomplished in 2025 and what, with the Lord’s help, we hope to accomplish in 2026.
During the past year we shipped two 40’ containers to Cuba and two to Zimbabwe at a cost of $100,000 just for shipping expenses.
Both Cuba and Zimbabwe have almost failed medical systems and we have been told that without our help the hospitals and clinics would almost come to a standstill. Part of MEMO’s efficiency is that we have no paid staff. Everything is done by volunteers. This year Grace Church Thunder Bay has kindly loaned us their treasurer, Margaret Capon saving us 15% on all donations. (Note changes to donation information.)
Our sewing machine mechanics continue to turn out refurbished sewing machines to save lives. In Zimbabwe when orphan girls reach the age of 18 years, they leave the orphanage and if they have no marketable skills, they end up dying of AIDs from life on the streets. Through the Zimbabwe Gecko Society, our sister organization, we support a seamstress school that gives them a marketable skill when they leave the orphanage. In Cuba the sewing machines are given to families so they can support themselves.
In May we shipped a cataract surgical machine to Cuba where it is being used to restore sight to the blind. Thank you to Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre for supplying expired intraocular lenses to send to Cuba to make the surgery possible.
Our network of volunteers across Canada collected hundreds of useable pacemakers from funeral homes. These are sent to the Cardiac Centre in Santa Clara, Cuba where they are reimplanted. Now we are told people from all over Cuba are traveling to the Santa Clara for lifesaving pacemakers!
Not so dramatic but still important, our volunteers have been sorting and sending donated garden tools to Zimbabwe and Cuba. In Zimbabwe the subsistence farmers are taught better farming techniques. They then borrow gardening tools to put into practice the new knowledge before passing the tools along to the next family. Reports tell us that the families now not only grow enough for their own needs but also some to sell so they are being lifted out of poverty!
Another project is collecting carpentry, mechanics tools, welders, and supplies. Our dedicated volunteers sort through all these tools and send it where it can best be used. In Zimbabwe we support a furniture shop, carpentry, and welding school so young men have vocational skills.
In September the Lakehead District School Board informed us that they had a school full of obsolete but still useful school furnishings to donate. At the same time, we were contacted by Bassie Kargbo, a Sierra Leonian expat who lives in Thunder Bay and is developing a technical and nursing school in Sierra Leonne. MEMO gave him all the equipment and supplies to run the nursing school. We filled a donated 53’ highway trailer with the furnishings donated by LDSB and sent it to Toronto where Bassie will ship it to Africa.
Over the years we have sent medicine to Zimbabwe in boxes of medical supplies without any problem. This year the Zimbabwean government put an end to that. They now require a license to import pharmaceuticals that are at least 6 months before expiry date. We have now established the Zimbabwe Medicine Project in which funds are spent in Zimbabwe to purchase medicine. The money is carried directly by Susan Janetti to Zimbabwe where it is used to buy pharmaceuticals. St Mary’s Hospital reports that they had no anaesthetics for surgeries but with this funding, they can buy anaesthetic agents for surgery to save lives. They also are supplying surrounding clinics where the rich are charged and the poor are not so the system is becoming self-sustaining.
In 2025 we have continued the MEMO mobility aids project. We provide wheelchairs, crutches, and walkers under the supervision of local occupational therapists to those who have fallen through the cracks and have no OHIP. We applied to a local charitable foundation for funding and were turned down. We will continue in spite of this.
Our volunteers this last year have packaged huge amounts of sheets and other linen from local hotels. We also received all the redundant privacy curtains from TBRHSC. These linens will be well used and appreciated in Cuba and Zimbabwe.
As you can see it has been a busy year. Thank you to local people for their donations of supplies and thank you to those of you who have donated financially to make this possible.
And now, what about next year? We plan, Lord willing, to ship two containers to Cuba ($17,000 each) and two containers to Zimbabwe ($29,000 each). We have just been promised from TBRHSC 60 to 70 hospital beds that will be replaced with “smart” beds. Zimbabwe desperately needs hospital beds as some patients are now sleeping on the ground. This will fill one entire container. We are hoping to raise the extra funds needed to ship this container in the spring. Our volunteers are getting older so 400 lb beds are a challenge! We only ask for the knowledge of God’s will and the strength to continue all of these activities.
Thank you for your support in 2025! For methods of contributing to MEMO’s support, click the DONATE button on the website banner.
Sincerely,
Jerome Harvey