WorldStage Newsonline— A U.S. based non-profit organization, MedShare has supported Nigerian medical sector with more than 40 million dollars worth of new medical supplies and biomedical equipment to strengthen the healthcare systems in the last 20 years.
Vice-President, International Development of MedShare, Ms Nell Diallo, disclosed this at the Nigeria Day at Atlanta to celebrate MedShare 20 years of strengthening healthcare in Nigeria.
Diallo said: “MedShare has supported over 150 hospitals in Nigeria and improved maternal and child health, primary care and infectious disease control and prevention in Nigeria’s healthcare facilities.
“MedShare has donated more than 40 million dollars in medical supplies and biomedical equipment to strengthen Nigeria’s health systems.
“Our Biomedical Equipment Training and Repair Service has donated more than 4,500 pieces of state-of-the-art biomedical equipment and more than 1,050 electric hospital beds.”
According to her, MedShare focuses on the 19 Northern States because there are more cases of inadequate medical access and healthcare facilities in those states.
All the 19 Northern State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory have benefitted from the charity organisation while southern states beneficiaries include Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Delta, Osun, Oyo, Lagos, Enugu and Abia States.
The beneficiary hospitals are the Ahmadu Bello University, Enugu State University, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, Lagos State University, and Jos University Teaching Hospitals as well as the Nigerian Navy Reference Hospitals.
“The flags that you see here, these are the countries we ship to. The country that has received the largest number and percentage of container is this one – Nigeria – and we ship to 100 countries.
“We receive our kinds of equipment and supplies; we do not accept any materials that cannot be used in the U.S. and we use the World Health Organisation’s standard for accepting donations to go to underserved countries.
“If you look at our warehouse here, it’s 40,000 square feet. We have another warehouse that’s 55,000 (square feet) in San Francisco and a 10,000 square feet warehouse in New Jersey.
“And at any given time, we have roughly 25 million dollars worth of materials that’s ready to be shipped and we load containers every week”.
Charles Redding, President and Chief Executive Officer of MedShare, said he was very pleased that Nigeria was one of its long-standing partners that it looked to strengthen healthcare system around the world.
Redding said: “And I say that with the recognition that Nigeria is a very large country thus the need is very large.
“So if we look at collectively, the impact we’ve had around the world with our shipment of medical supplies and equipment, Nigeria has received the most of those shipments.
“We can certainly estimate that we’ve touched the lives of over two million Nigerians over the last 20 years.
“So we are very proud of the partnership, the openness and the community to want to work with us and to support our ongoing efforts to improve healthcare facilities around the world”.
MedShare is a Medical Surplus Recovery Organisation that collects and distributes surplus medical products to qualified healthcare facilities in medically-underserved communities around the world on an on-going basis.
The Atlanta-based organisation, was named a ‘Four Star Charity’ for the 13th consecutive year by Charity Navigator.
This designation recognises the top one per cent of U.S. charities based on the criteria of transparency, organisational accountability, and measurable impact.
Redding said MedShare, currently in its 20th year of operations, has collected over 207 million dollars worth of lifesaving medical supplies and equipment that has helped over 19 million patients in over 100 countries and territories.
The module for receiving 350,000 dollars worth of medical supplies and equipment involves the sponsorship of 25,000 dollars for shipping logistics.
Redding advised Nigerian state governors and other well-meaning individuals to take advantage of the opportunity to offset their health budgets and facilitate the equipping of Nigerian hospitals through MedShare.
The event was attended by Nigeria’s Consul-General in Atlanta, Kayode Laro, his wife, Mr Innocent Iwejuo, Consul, Information and Economics, representatives of Nigerian community organisations in the U.S. and members of the Nigerian diaspora.(NAN)
