Life-saving treasure chests reach remote villages
POINTE-CLAIRE, QC—Each 50-pound cardboard box--small enough to check in with any airline—can save 600 lives. The treasure chests crammed with antibiotics, antimalarials, eye drops and other medical essentials arrive at villages in Zimbabwe, Burma, Haiti, Ecuador or Iraq often balanced on heads, lashed to canoes or perched on the backs of mopeds.
Health Partners International (HPIC), a faith-based organization headquartered in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, packs high quality medical supplies donated by Canadian pharmaceutical companies into cardboard boxes with easy carrying handles branded by Canadian flag stickers.
The packs travel with healthcare professionals, nursing or dental students learning how to work in rudimentary settings, disaster relief workers and short-term missions teams.
"Without the Physician Travel Packs I'd be making great diagnoses and offering nothing more than a prayer," says Pierre Plourde, a Winnipeg doctor who brings a team of health professionals to Haiti for a week every year. In Port Au Prince, Plourde and a Haitian doctor use curtains to partition the sanctuary of a local church into a makeshift emergency ward. The afflicted pour in.
"I can work without a lab," says Plourde, who spends a week treating people who can't afford to buy medication. "Without drugs I'd be totally useless."
In a week he usually treats 200 patients.
The first time, Plourde brought one travel pack with him and used it up completely. Now he brings three, uses one and leaves the other two behind. The Haitian doctor Plourde works with runs his practice without the help of medical textbooks or Internet access. He buys generic drugs mostly from India that are cheap by Canadian standards, but unaffordable for most Haitians.
All the medications in the travel pack are dispensed for free. Each kit contains about $6,000 worth of medical supplies. HPIC gives them to non-governmental or humanitarian organizations for a donation of $575. The drugs are high quality medications that don't require refrigeration and have a shelf life of at least six months.
Some well-intentioned aid workers have been known to salvage expired drugs from hospitals and drug companies for use overseas, but not HPIC, says Nancy McGuire, who directs HPIC physician programs. Haitian border officials often open the boxes to inspect the contents for overdue expiry dates, Plourde says.
In 2008 HPIC sent 775 travel packs to 59 countries around the world, including post-hurricane Myanmar, water-logged Ecuador, cholera-wracked Zimbabwe and bomb-battered Somalia. This year HPIC aims to distribute 1,000.
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