What a fantastic opportunity we have before us! Last spring, we spent 2 weeks in Kenya under the auspices of FIENS, the Foundation for International Education of Neurological Surgery. (Read all about it at: www.fiens.org) While David did surgery and taught the residents, I was given unlimited access to the hospital clinics, wards, and outreach programs.Last year we took over $100,000 worth of donated neurosurgical medical supplies with us, all desperately needed by the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya.
And now here we are, one year later, and we're ready to do it all again! FIENS offers us the opportunity to volunteer independently but arranges contacts and accomodations in the 20-plus countries in which it has a presence. This time we have chosen to go to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We have again been organizing donations from several large medical supply companies, taylored to the specific needs of the Black Lion Hospital. They have requested cranioplastic material, Fibrillar and bone wax (and who doesn't need to have a little extra bone wax on hand??!) We were very lucky to hear that Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle was closing out on some of it's skull reconstruction supplies and they kindly donated them to our cause.
Last year Cosco donated about 1,000 ballpoint pens which were a big hit with the patients at the clinics I visited and I still have plenty of those left over. I had asked Costco Travel if they would donate some foldable recycle bags and several days later 5 large boxes, each holding approx. 250 bags, arrived at our door (I have called Costco and thanked them for their OVERLY generous contribution and asked if they would be so kind as to take 4 of these boxes back!) I had also seen some very cute animal flashlights at REI and called the distributor, Sun Products in California, about wholesale pricing. They refused my offer to buy them and instead asked if they could donate 25 to the Ethiopian children!Transport is always the biggest hurdle. Items really can't be mailed, the cost is prohibitive and theft and pilfering are rampant. So, we will do the same as we did for Kenya: buy very large suitcases at Goodwill for $10-$12 each, pack them to the max and then leave them behind at the end of our stay.
