THUNDER BAY - It will be six months until medical equipment shipped from the Thunder Bay Psychiatric Hospital will arrive in El Salvador, but Jerome Harvey can already feel the impact.
“There’s an inestimable number of people this helps,” Harvey said.
The Medical Equipment Modernization Opportunity was launched in 2004 and has donated medical equipment to third-world countries ever since.
Their latest shipment, which hits the road on Thursday afternoon, includes beds, crutches, wheelchairs, bikes, and anything in between.
The equipment will make its way to the impoverished and violent country of El Salvador.
In 2015, the Latin American nation suffered a murder rate of 116 homicides per 100,000, more than 17 times the global average.
The country’s health-care system is also in a dire state, as 43 per cent of citizens don’t have medical care according to Harvey, who heads the MEMO operation.
“It’s hard for us as Canadians to get our mind around this idea,” Harvey said. “If you had cancer you just die without any pain medication or any treatment at all.”
The shocking conditions are what compels the group of mostly-retired volunteers to take action.
In November, a group representing MEMO will have the chance to visit El Salvador and directly aid the people in need.
Lori Owens, who works as a nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital, already had the opportunity to visit, and said the experience was as humbling as she could have ever imagined.
“It was very emotional because we got to live with the people,” Owens said. “We got to see their homes, and see what their needs are.”
Owens recalled a moment of immense pride, which came when she donated her grandson’s picnic table to El Salvador. Months later when she arrived in the country to help, she saw the table outside of a clinic.
“My heart skipped. It was simple, but so meaningful.”
Owens is calling on citizens to help volunteer with the program, in the hopes that they will be rewarded the same way she was.
“That’s what gives you a sense of yourself. You have to give back.”
Anyone who wishes to get involved in the MEMO organization can visit www.memoministry.org.
