PORTLAND, Maine — Since the start of the war in Ukraine more than two years ago, there have been almost 1,500 attacks on the country's health care system, with 700 damaged or destroyed hospitals, according to a coalition of worldwide health organizations.
The Portland-based nonprofit Partners For World Health is dedicated to sending medical supplies to countries like Ukraine that are in crisis. It's sent nearly $5 million in aid to Ukraine since the war began, and it's preparing to send its 12th shipment on Thursday.
"This was not a country we’d worked with before, so we had to build a pipeline into a war zone. That was kind of challenging, but stuff was on the ground within days," Paul Golding, the nonprofit's director of advancement, said.
The nonprofit refurbishes surplus medical equipment that was discarded by health care systems across New England. They stockpile supplies awaiting shipment to countries with little access to health care.
"If you can take a hospital and put it on a container, that's kind of what we do," Jim Siulinski, a biomedical engineer, said.
The nonprofit has saved more than two million pounds of supplies—anything from ultrasound machines and ventilators to gauze—from going into landfills. By the end of this year, the nonprofit is estimated to have shipped nearly $50 million of equipment since its start in 2009.
"We have these supplies. The challenge is to get them to the people in need," Golding said.
The nonprofit and its volunteers will pack and ship a 40-foot container full of supplies to Ukraine Thursday. Golding said they plan to send another six or more this year.
"Other countries, they don’t have the resources that we do," volunteer Sally Fitzgerald said. "There’s just so much of this stuff that can be utilized for all those people across the world."
Fitzgerald sorts through boxes of discarded supplies when she volunteers a few times a week. After recently retiring after being a nurse for more than 40 years, she said volunteering fulfills the piece of her that still wants to help others.
"I feel really good after I leave here. I usually have a smile on my face the whole time I’m here and when I leave because I feel like I did do something that might help somebody else, and I hope that it does," she said.