After a year of effort, including sending 550 pounds of medical supplies to Ghana on April 7, Northwestern Medical Supplies Mission organizers are renewing their focus on helping destitute international hospitals.
This quarter the group plans to expand shipments to three new countries, begin a new medical kits initiative and network with other colleges, MSM co-founder John Broach said.
He said the organization would start making shipments to new locations in New Guinea, India and Brazil, which will nearly triple the amount of supplies already sent.
In the past the organization had sent one shipment of supplies per quarter to Ghana.
The group’s decision to expand to these countries was based on need and if an MSM member had contacts in the country, Broach said.
“We try to maintain a personal and ongoing relationship with the hospitals that we send supplies,” Broach said.
The group’s donations will still be solicited from medical supply companies, said David Yuan, chairman of the fund-raising committee.
Broach said the group hopes to send about 1,000 individual health kits to Haiti in June. The kits will contain soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs and other personal healthcare items.
MSM will hold local collection drives in area schools and also gather donations from companies. Johnson & Johnson already has donated toothbrushes, Broach said.
MSM also is working with other college students to found similar groups at other universities across the country later this spring.
So far the group has contacted the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and George Mason University in Virginia.
“If more universities get involved, then it helps get more people into international service and increases the supplies we’re able to send,” Broach said.
The spring initiatives will require significantly more fund raising, said Yuan, a Weinberg junior.
The fund-raising committee will again raffle off gift certificates to local businesses and will continue Papa John’s fund-raising nights, where a percentage of the profits from orders are donated to the organization.
Leaders also are planning a benefit concert, Yuan said, in which a campus band will perform at The Keg or the 1800 Club.
