Category Archives: Volunteer Updates

St. Elizabeth’s Parish Day Of Service, Uwclan Pa

Thank you and all the other members of your team for the outstanding help you provided at the Mission Relief Services (MRS) Warehouse in Parkesburg!  The sorting, repackaging and palatalizing of medical-surgical supplies that you accomplished in the warehouse has helped us organize donations to ship to the less fortunate in overseas developing countries.
img_0352 img_0353 img_0354 img_0355 img_0369 img_0348 img_0349 img_0350

Villanova Nursing Students Pack Supplies for Ebola Outbreak Countries

VIDEO: Villanova students pack supplies for Ebola outbreak countries

Several dozen Villanova University nursing students spent the day putting together supplies to send to those fighting the Ebola outbreak.

 WPVI
By
Sunday, September 28, 2014
COATESVILLE, Pa. (WPVI) —

Several dozen Villanova University nursing students spent the day putting together supplies to send to those on the front lines fighting the Ebola outbreak.

About 70 students worked Saturday filling containers with medical supplies to go to countries in need.

Sister Jaclyn Mayak has been on the receiving end in her native country of Kenya.

“Sometimes when we receive the containers in my country we have no idea how much people sacrifice to do all the work,” said Mayak.

Coatesville’s Mission Relief headquarters has been working overtime since the Ebola outbreak.

Dr. Boubacar Bah sees the impact in Guinea.

“We have hospitals where patients are on the floors, no beds, equipment is missing but needed,” said Dr. Bah.

The amount of supplies varies, they could be as small as tools to draw blood and masks or even big items like mattresses and beds for hospitals in need.

“We collect from a wide area and build 40 foot containers for Africa. Of course with Ebola, it’s really ignited our business,” said Jim Harrison, Mission Relief.

Harrison founded Mission Relief. He gathers supplies from local hospitals and with help from organizations like Villanova nursing he packs the containers.

He also relies on donations for the $5,000 shipping cost.

“Funding for shipping dollars is the biggest hurdle, this is the easy – part collecting and getting things together,” said Harrison.

“In a hospital set up, it depends how many beds they have but it could be a set up for two or three months,” said Mayak.

Receiving one container is an enormous help and packing one is a lesson for these nursing students about how much of an impact they can have beyond Villanova.

“We have a much more global perspective in what we teach now. It’s not just about what’s going on in the United States because the U.S. is now a part of the world culture. We’re a part of everyone and we teach that in the classroom,” said Kathy Gray-Siracusa, Assistant Professor of Villanova’s College of Nursing.

For more on how you can donate or support visit http://www.missionrelief.com/index.htm

Original feed on ABC ActionNews with Video

Ministry of Health for Sierra Leone

Container #TRLU-482972-2, Seal#190320.

This container was shipped to the Ministry of Health for Sierra Leone. The container was hand loaded by over twenty-five high school students from the First Presbyterian Church of Burlington, North Carolina. The students were staying in West Chester at the Westminster Presbyterian Church, and spending their days working at various projects in the Philadelphia- West Chester corridor. It was a beautiful day and these southern teenagers provided us with a great dose of southern hospitality by assisting us in loading a container and sorting supplies. Gloves and disposable gowns were included in the shipment only to be used later for Ebola protection in Sierra Leone. The photos are great.

St Thomas of Villanova Day 2013

This is how it happens. Medical materials get donated by area hospitals. They come to our Warehouse in Coatesville. Villanova nursing students and staff join members of Mission Relief every year to sort through the materials so that they can be shipped to developing countries.

Boxes of donated medical supplies from area hospitals are collected here at our warehouse in Coatesville, sorted, and shipped to hospitals in the developing world.