NEWS RELEASE, AUGUST 6, 2012
Cleveland, Ohio – On Monday, August 13, MedWish
International will bring 40 volunteers and almost a ton of supplies to
Zaragoza, El Salvador, to deliver medical care to residents there. The
humanitarian aid non-profit has teamed up with Hudson-based 4M Emergency
Services to bring 10 emergency medicine physicians to work with other volunteer
doctors, nurses, interpreters and educators in field clinics through this
year’s MedWish medical brigade.
“In my role as an
orphan advocate, I have transported and delivered medical supplies from MedWish
to orphanage clinics in China and Kazakhstan, where I saw firsthand the
difference something as simple as a sterile bandage could make,” said 4M CEO
Lori Anderson-Printy. She decided to send 4M doctors on this year’s MedWish
brigade to help them reconnect to the heart of their work – helping those in
need – and to learn from the experience of working overseas.
“This appreciation of
the profound impact MedWish was making on the lives of people in the developing
world lead me to commit resources to MedWish. The experience of going to El
Salvador and seeing their compassion in action will make our staff better
doctors for Cleveland,” Anderson-Printy said. In addition to leading 4M and
working as an orphan advocate, Anderson-Printy has six children and is a well-known
“mommy blogger” at www.fiveofmyown.blogspot.com.
Anderson-Printy and
her staff join a total of 44 people traveling on this year’s medical brigade. This
will be MedWish’s third visit to Zaragoza, an impoverished rural community
north of El Salvador’s capital, San Salvador. Local MedWish supporters
collected more than 800 pounds of hygiene and first aid items to send with
brigade volunteers.
“The simplest things
we take for granted in the U.S. can make the biggest difference for others.
This trip is an opportunity for our supporters to see that difference for
themselves,” said Rob Namy, brigade planning committee co-chair and member of
the MedWish Board of Directors. Namy and co-chair Ashley Wilson Baer have built
the brigade program to promote cooperation among MedWish and the overseas
communities it serves.
During brigades,
MedWish provides health care in simple field clinics, through which volunteers
will see an anticipated 1,500 men, women and children. Past MedWish volunteers at
these Zaragozan clinics have treated dermatological conditions, vision
problems, infections, mumps, parasites and wounds from farming accidents,
gunshots and surgical complications.
“While we send medical supplies all over the world,
we usually must hear second-hand about the people we help,” said MedWish
executive director Josh Kravitz. “Medical brigades are an opportunity for us to
learn from the people we exist to serve, report back to our supporters on the
impact of their gifts and to help these communities thrive long after we’ve
left.”
This year, access to
this impact for supporters back home will be immediate: Throughout the week and
beyond, volunteers will blog, Tweet and Facebook at www.medwish.org/brigade.
About MedWish
International
MedWish International is a non-profit organization that
collects usable medical supplies and equipment from U.S. health systems and
distributes it as humanitarian aid to developing countries. Since 2003, MedWish
has kept more than 2.75 million pounds of medical surplus out of landfills
and has sent much-needed supplies to more than 90 countries all over the world.
MedWish was founded in 1993 in Cleveland, Ohio.
About 4M Emergency
Services
4M Emergency Services is a physician staffing company
founded in 1992 by Dr. Howard Dickey-White and based in Hudson, Ohio. 4M serves hospitals in Ohio, including University Hospitals of Cleveland and HMHP in Youngstown. In addition to providing staffing
services for skilled emergency medicine physicians, 4M provides expertise in
the areas of practice management, risk management, managed care and medical
information systems. For more information about 4M, visit 4Mdocs.com or call
(330) 656-5911.
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