For the very first time, last weekend we hosted a couple of Congolese gentlemen in our NJT store house (aka garage). Patrick had driven up from Toronto, stopped in Gatineau to catch his breath and then drove another hour and a half just to see our "goodies" with his brother-in-law Vincent. After looking over all our offerings, Patrick took a bunch of sample items and boxes of syringes, needles, etc.
He then drove back to Gatineau on Thursday and loaded up his SUV with supplies from the main warehouse. There went thousands of syringes, needles, gloves, masks, gowns, a couple of walkers and an autoclave (recently donated by Appletree).
Speaking of Appletree, one of their 9-room clinics closed. Kaitlyn spent a good part of a weekend taking inventory of everything left behind and provided it to us. It was an inventory of the entire contents including exam beds, autoclave, furnishings (go Maurice!), etc. Between Patrick (one autoclave to go, an otoscope, fax, fax stand, etc., etc.), Hassan (bye bye exam beds!), Jacques and Maurice (office furnishings/equipment) the clinic has been pretty well emptied. Way to go Kaitlyn!
Recently, NJT-Ottawa was offered $2.3 million dollars worth of medical supplies being phased out of the Winnipeg office of Health Canada. These were pandemic supplies, similar to what we had received from Somerset St. W. health clinic. Jacques got in touch with his contacts at Canadian Network for International Surgery and World Vision Canada. This past week, World Vision took the entire inventory!! Way to go Jacques!
We heard from Cathy Dufour, who is currently in Guatemala with armloads of supplies from NJT-Ottawa. She reports these supplies were very gratefully received. On Thursday, the group of 85 students from Canterbury High School descended on Padre Enrique in Havana, with about 100 kg of NJT supplies, including some badly-needed meds. We'll soon be renting a cargo van to pick up supplies collected by a nurse in Oxford Station. She's been collecting for years - this will be a big load for sure.
And we have some new volunteers to introduce and welcome:
Felice Drew has been with us since last fall and has been collecting supplies for a rescue home in Cambodia. She also does pick-ups, temporary storage and deliveries to the warehouse... another westender!
Cathy Dufour Joined NJT before Christmas. A nursing instructor at Heritage College, she now regularly accepts supplies to be used for teaching purposes. Cathy is also teaching the warehouse rats how to recognize what they're holding.
Heather Forbes contacted us to offer to pick up, deliver and store donated supplies in Ottawa East (Main St./Queensway area). Thank you Heather!
Gerry Hogan is a new volunteer in the Carlingwood area for pick-ups, drop-offs, delivery. Ms. Hogan has previous experience with humanitarian efforts through the Unitarian Church and recently delivered a NJT suitcase to Mexico.
Special thanks to Appletree for keeping us well-stocked! And to Carefor as well for donations and many referrals. Scrubs for Them has adopted us and donates gently used scrubs turned in by clients.
We lost Peter again... back to Havana to see his newest baby girl...
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