Update on HOPE’s Typhoon Haiyan Relief Efforts
To date, we have distributed $1.6 million of donated medicines and supplies in the Philippines.
Early this week I arranged for the transfer of the final 17 pallets of our initial $1 million-worth of donated medicines and supplies. They are headed to health institutions in the Municipality of Tapaz in Panay Island, where 13 Project HOPE medical volunteers are now on the ground supporting the local health infrastructure. Colin Credle, Logistics Manager for Project HOPE, is in Tapaz to receive the donated materials and to make sure that they reach the proper health institutions.
I also arranged for the transfer of antibiotics, generously donated by GSK UK, which will be distributed to Bogo City, Daan Bantayan and Bantayan Island, in cooperation with the Philippine Department of Health and in coordination with the World Health Organization. To date Project HOPE has shipped $1.6 million of medicines and supplies to the Philippines as part of our Typhoon Haiyan relief efforts.
Our team of 13 volunteers on the ground in Tapaz now includes primary care doctors, nurses, a paramedic, a logistics officer, a surgeon and several nurse midwives. They are augmenting staff in both the Tapaz Municipal Hospital and a local health clinic. Later this week our volunteers will be partaking in outreach activities – going out into the local community to talk with individuals and see if there are unmet medical needs where they can be of assistance. Several additional Project HOPE medical volunteers are expected to arrive in Tapaz within days.