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Delivering a
World
of
Health
and
Hope
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Supplies Over Seas (SOS) is a Louisville, Kentucky-based nonprofit organization that meets critical health care needs in medically impoverished communities around the world by collecting and distributing surplus medical supplies and equipment.
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Each $1 donated to SOS decreases the environmental footprint of area hospitals while providing a
medically impoverished community with more than $10 in life-saving medical supplies and equipment.
Please consider making a gift to SOS.
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Every day, SOS collects what our healthcare system can no longer use and sends it to medically
impoverished communities around the globe.
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In 2015 we received over 153 tons of medical supplies and equipment from our regional partners that would have otherwise gone into our landfills. This is huge and
we
could not do it without our amazing volunteers and donors who help us send health and hope across the world.
We need your help! Every gift changes lives and plays an important role in our ability to continue sending critically-needed medical supplies to those in need. We hope you will make a generous gift today.
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Thank You for Supporting Our Work to Bring Health and Hope
to the World
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A How To For
Faith-Based or Community Groups:
Organize a Medical Recycling Program
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Supplies Over Seas
(SOS) would love to partner with your faith-based or community group and organize a medical supplies recycling program. The medical supplies your organization collects will be used to save lives worldwide.
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Teach to Transform Goes to Ghana
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A Teach To Transform team traveled to northern Ghana in early January to partner with a clinic that pulls teeth and gives eye exams. They do not have other medical ability, however, so our team went to train clinic workers and also many community workers from the region. There is another government clinic in the area, but it is more than 2 hours away for some villages.
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Our emphasis was Health & Hygiene, prevention of Water-Bourne Illness, how to take Vital Signs, Wound & Burn Care and how to assess Breathing Problems. We also taught Helping Babies Breathe.
The students were very excited to receive this training. More and more students came every day as word got out in the community. This was our biggest trip to date, with 131 students from many regional villages.
The area that we feel will really be impacted is cord care.
Many babies had herniated umbilical cords because they were cut too long at birth. Our instructor focused a lot on the appropriate length to cut, where to clamp the umbilical cord, and how to tie it off. We hope that this will help many people in the future. We are exploring ways that we can help the current situation.
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SOS provides many of our wound care supplies and birthing supplies like clamps and ambu bags. These are life-saving gifts to the communities who do not have access to basic health care.
In addition to teaching medical techniques, our teachers also talk about the importance of having compassion and helping a pregnant woman. This usually opens up quite a dialogue among our students.
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We are so thankful for the mission of SOS! We love partnering with you to take supplies in the field to
remote places where people who need them. The work of our students will be overseen by the local clinic partner, and as we receive updates from the field, we can share them with you.
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Sullivan University College of Pharmacy,
Christian Pharmacist Fellowship International
and Sport Reach:
Health and Hope to Belize!
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Drs. Sarah Raake and
Emily Esposito, are both pharmacists on faculty at Sullivan University and co-advisers for the
C
hristian Pharmacist Fellowship International (CPFI). Together, they are planning a service trip to Belize for 35 participants this spring. Dr. Sarah will provide "on the ground" leadership in Belize and Dr. Emily will provide support to the group here in Louisville.
"The experience of seeing SOS was one of the most humbling and rewarding ones I’ve ever had." - Dr. Raake
This diverse group includes a pharmacist, registered nurse, physician assistant students, pharmacy students and recent graduates. They plan to offer care to inmates in a prison and those in hospice care.
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The group discusses what they hope to learn and give in Belize.
Watch the video here.
This is the first service trip for everyone! How exciting!
The goal of this group is to improve their patients ability to provide self care!
SOS is excited to provide this wonderful group of women with seven suitcases full of supplies and fourteen pieces of equipment.
Interested in learning how you and your group can obtain supplies
and equipment for your mission or service trip?
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Ray of Hope Medical Centre in Uganda
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Founded in 2004, Ray of Hope Medical Centre was established through a partnership between
Terri Clark Ministries Inc.,
USA and Ray of Hope Ministries in Uganda. The Ray of Hope Centre serves the residents of Ntinda, Uganda. Prior to the opening of the Centre the nearest hospital was 8 miles away in Mulago. By American standards, this does not seem far, but to people in poverty that must travel on foot or hire transport, this distance is a significant barrier to obtaining medical care.
The
Ray of Hope Medical Centre houses a
pharmacy, a small lab, two examination rooms, and patient recovery rooms. Future plans include a surgical wing with its own filtration and air systems for a sterile environment.
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Terri Clark d
iscusses
how equipment obtained from SOS will impact citizens in
Mulago,
Uganda. The Centre assists in the birthing process of 20 infants and performs 2 cesareans each month.
Watch the video!
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A Caring Facility that Receives Everyone Regardless of
Ability to Pay in Life Threatening Situations.
Preventative Care is Offered at a Fraction of the Cost of Private Hospital.
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Community Outreach
The clinic hosts a weekly call-in show, hosted by healthcare professionals to discuss health and nutrition.
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On average, the Centre receives about 100 patients per week. In instances of disease outbreak this number rises.
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Every patient receives a clean bed, kindness and medical care administered in love.
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Other proactive efforts of the clinic include having a Ugandan doctor on staff trained to provide nutritional guidance in a local community context.
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Global and Local Connections Yield
Hope and Health
for
Kenya
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On a cold afternoon in February Mark and Shannon arrived at Supplies Over Seas to pick-up supplies and equipment bound for
Tenwek Hospital in Kenya.
Mark, representing South East Christian Church
and Shannon with World Gospel Mission
are supporting the work of Dr. Joy Draper to improve healthcare for women and infants in the communities surrounding Bomet, Kenya.
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I became connected to Kenya when my wife lived there the summer before we married. The missionaries she stayed with hosted a youth group trip that Jackie and I participated in, the year after we were married. From that point, Kenya has held a special place in my heart (we still have friends that are serving on the mission field there). A friend from church, Keith Forwith, does an annual trip to Kenya to train doctors at Tenwek Hospital. My sister-in-law also spent time at Tenwek hospital.
In the last year, I became acquainted with Dr. Joy Draper through another church friend, Dr. Meredith Loveless, who befriended Dr. Draper during their medical training in Virginia. Dr. Loveless practices in here [in Louisville] at Norton Healthcare and Dr. Draper is an Ob/Gyn that practices at Tenwek. Meredith hosted an event at her home for people to hear of the work Dr. “Joy” was doing at Tenwek, and my wife and I became involved.
I learned about SOS from several different sources (medical executives of local hospitals, a friend’s high school-aged daughter, and my brother, who is friends with Melissa Mershon, SOS President/CEO).
SOS became a conduit for how to collect much needed equipment and get it to Dr. Draper. While we were able to use a container for shipment through Dr. Draper’s mission sending organization, World Gospel Mission out of Marion, IN, we still needed to gather the actual supplies for her, and SOS was able to come through for us. Touring the facility with my mother-in-law, I garnered a whole new level of appreciation for the work that is done and the complexity to make the donated items easily available for those in need. I have always appreciated Louisville’s alignment with charitable and humanitarian causes, and SOS is one of its shining jewels.
--Mark Chupp
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Mark and Shannon show some Kenyan Pride
after their truck is packed with SOS supplies and equipment.
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Four Birthing Beds Donated by Baptist Health
The clinic lacks birthing beds, currently women give birth on the ground
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Medical Supplies Packed an Ready for Kenya
Dressings, Surgical Tools, Gloves, and Other Supplies to Improve Women's Health.
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KentuckyOne Health A
Donated a Fetal Monitor
To provide much needed technology to provide basic diagnostic information.
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SOS Shipped Fifth Container to Mali
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In November 2015, Supplies Over Seas sent our fifth 40-foot shipping container of medical supplies, equipment and food to Mali in partnership with the Haidara Foundation. Mali is a country in West Africa where half of the population of 16.4 million lives in extreme poverty. The items in this container will supply three hospitals and twenty-six clinics. Watch the container being LOADED !!!
The dollar value of the contents of the container was over $178,587.27! One hundred and fifty one pieces of medical equipment weighed over 3,188 pounds and 10 pallets of 753 boxes of medical dry supplies weighed over 21,648 pounds. That is a lot of “Health and Hope” coming from our region that would otherwise have gone in our landfills if regional hospitals, medical institutions, doctor’s offices and individuals had not partnered with SOS.
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Mali Delegation Visits SOS
While in Louisville, members of the delegation were welcomed at Metro Hall by Mayor Fischer.
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TriHealth Donated . . .
Medicine Carts
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Norton Health Care Donated . . .
Electrocardiogram Machines.
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Kentucky Health One Donated . . .
Operating Room Lights
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November 2015
SOS Warehouse Team sending Health and Hope to Mali. SOS team loaded a quarter ton of supplies and equipment in 2 hours.
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November 2015
The fifth container prior to leaving Louisville filled with 150 pieces of medical equipment and 10 pallets with 753 boxes of dry supplies.
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The container traveled . . . from from Louisville to Norfolk, Virginia via truck.
From Norfolk to the port city of
Dakar, Segal via ship.
From Dakar, the container traveled by truck to "land locked" Mali.
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Container Arrives - January 2016
After traveling 5,000 miles across 2 continents and the Atlantic Ocean the container is unloaded.
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SOS Volunteer Selected for Prestigious Scholarship
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Marrita Porter was selected by the Kentucky Association for Medical Instrumentation (KAMI) to receive a Certified Biomedical Equipment Technician (CBET) scholarship. According to AAMI, those who achieve CBET status have demonstrated excellence in theoretical as well as practical knowledge of the principles of biomedical equipment technology.
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Marrita was formally recognized at the KAMI meeting on November 17, 2015 held at the Jewish Hospital Rudd Heart and Lung Center. KAMI president David Simpson and Vice President Jennifer Davis presented the scholarship.
Marrita is a Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET) for Norton Healthcare Clinical Engineering.
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"Volunteering at SOS is a great honor, because it gives me the opportunity to serve others in need, and it also expands my Biomedical Equipment Technology knowledge."
- Marrita Porter
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Congratulations to Marrita!
Your contributions to SOS are greatly appreciated. We delight in watching you grow as a professional and mentor to others in the field. Your smile and positive attitude are contagious!
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S
OS Tuesday Tours are an intimate opportunity to learn more about how we deliver health and hope to communities around the world while saving tons of medical surplus from our landfills!
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2016 dates:
- April 12
- May 10
- June 14
- July 12
Agenda for Tuesday Tours
- 7:30 am Networking & Light Breakfast
- 8:00 – 9:00 am SOS Introduction & Tour
This is a FREE Event, but your RSVP is requested
Phone: 502-736-6360
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Your Old Vehicle Can Make a Difference to Supplies Over Seas
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Do you have a great old car you can’t sell because of mechanical problems? Don’t trade that car in for next to nothing!
Your car can be worth more to you than dealers offer for a trade in.
It’s easy, tax deductible and best of all, your vehicle will provide Supplies Over Seas with funds to meet critical health care needs in medically impoverished communities around the world by collecting and distributing surplus medical supplies and equipment.
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Attention Kroger Shoppers!
Enroll today to support Supplies Over Seas every time you scan your Kroger Plus Card to buy groceries, prescriptions and gas!
Visit www.kroger.com/communityrewards and select Supplies Over Sea (#85880) as your preferred charity.
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2. Choose SOS International Inc. (not Supplies Over Seas) as your charitable organization.
3. Shop with the knowledge you are supporting SOS!
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Have You Considered a Legacy Gift to Supplies Over Seas?
A gift to Supplies Over Seas in your will or revocable trust enables you to support our mission and make a difference in the lives of future generations. A bequest:
- Is easy to arrange.
- Will not alter your current lifestyle in any way.
- Can be easily modified to address your changing needs.
If you or your attorney would like Supplies Over Seas to provide you with customized beneficiary language that is specific to your goals and interests, please contact Melissa Mershon or Tim Tomes at 502.736.6360
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We want your feedback about this newsletter.
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