Launched in Canada in 1990, Not Just Tourists facilitates the collection and delivery of surplus medical supplies to some of the poorest and most remote clinics in the world. This week, the organisation launched a new branch in Bristol, United Kingdom. This means that United Kingdom (UK) travellers can join a volunteer-run movement that has so far delivered more than 10,000 suitcases of supplies to 82 countries.
Supplies are sourced from hospitals, medical suppliers and patients who have passed away. The supplies are then packed into suitcases and paired with people travelling to destinations where they are most needed.
Not Just Tourists helps with the documentation required to transport the supplies, which include bandages, syringes, blood-taking kits, catheters, speculums, clean gloves, masks, gowns, as well as equipment including glucose or blood pressure meters and stethoscopes.
The Bristol branch has been set up by Claudia Hon, a General Practitioner (GP) who volunteered with the organisation while living in Toronto. Hon said: “The documentation is a couple of generic letters in various languages listing the basic stuff, what it’s for, the aim of the organisation and that it’s not for sale; that it’s a humanitarian gift/donation for people in need.”
Avi D’Souza, who founded the Toronto branch in a garage four years ago and has since sent more than 1,000 suitcases (packed with more than 400,000 pounds of medical supplies and equipment to 63 countries) says the project is about “connecting people”. He said: “Our mission is not only to get medical supplies to remote clinics around the world but also to create extraordinary journeys for travellers.”
The countries that received the biggest amount of supplies between June 2016 and June 2017 were Cameroon, Rwanda, Swaziland, Chad and El Salvador, but equipment was also delivered to Cuba, Ghana, Ecuador, India and Peru, among others.
The Bristol branch is hoping to hear from people who might want to donate supplies as well as deliver them.
Read more here.
Source: The Guardian, 13 October 2017