Medical support arrived in Kingston, and the shipment contained a Direct Relief hurricane preparedness pack, a module containing critical medications, including antibiotics, wound care supplies, chronic disease management medication, protective gear, and more. The packs are staged in hurricane-prone areas across the Caribbean and U.S. Gulf Coast to support patient care if supply lines are damaged.

The pack contains enough medications to sustain care for up to 3,000 patients for 30 days. Monday’s shipment also included 10 Direct Relief field medic packs to Jamaica to aid in response efforts. The packs are specifically designed to equip first responders with medical essentials for triage care.

The shipment will be distributed by Jamaica’s Ministry of Health, which supports public health facilities in Jamaica, including hospitals and primary care clinics.

The shipment was dispatched from PAHO’s regional strategic stockpile in Panama and will be distributed to medical facilities serving patients. The infusion of support from Direct Relief is one in a series of air support shipments that have arrived or will continue to arrive in the country to support health services after Hurricane Melissa devastated portions of the island last month.

Direct Relief has worked with the Pan American Health Organization since 2018, to provide regional support to medical organizations in the Americas, including Caribbean countries, and will continue to assist with emergency response efforts in the region.

The post Critical Medications, Supplies Arrive in Jamaica with Coordination from Direct Relief, Pan American Health Organization appeared first on Direct Relief.

Medications and supplies shipped this week included treatments for chronic conditions, mental health, pain relief, and surgical care.

Responding to Floods In Alaska, Post-Typhoon

In response to major flooding in areas of western Alaska, Direct Relief has been shipping medical aid to the state this week to support evacuees and others impacted by the storms. Direct Relief provided field medic packs and personal care items for displaced people to the Alaska Native Heritage Center, or ANHC, located in Anchorage.

A part of a statewide coalition of organizations, ANHC is working to coordinate relief provisions to directly impacted individuals. The organization is coordinating material aid to areas of greatest need, providing financial assistance to displaced families, and coordinating transportation of supplies to Southwest Alaska. ANHC will also receive $50,000 to support emergency response costs.

Direct Relief has provided more than $5 million in medical and financial support to organizations across the state since 2008, and will continue to respond to needs arising from the recent floods.

Medical Deliveries Support Critical Health Services in South Sudan

Medical aid from Direct Relief is being used to provide health services in South Sudan via the non-profit, the MAMA Project. The group and other in-country partners distributed donated medicines and medical supplies to six primary health care units and Mother Teresa Hospital in Twic and Gogrial West counties of Warrap State. The deliveries, coordinated with local health authorities, restored essential care in communities that had gone months without medical supplies. 

The supplies enabled medical teams to resume treatment for a wide range of preventable and infectious diseases and respond to trauma and emergency cases. Additional donations, including surgical tools and emergency medical backpacks, strengthened clinical capacity at Mother Teresa Hospital, while personal care items distributed to women and girls helped address critical health and hygiene needs among displaced populations.

Local health workers reported sharp improvements in service delivery following the arrival of the medications, which filled significant gaps left by delayed public supply chains.  

Dr. Bith Kondok, an anesthetist at Mother Teresa Hospital, noted that gaps in medication supplies made the Direct Relief-supported deliveries “critical to sustaining lifesaving treatment” for people already living in South Sudan and displaced people arriving from other countries. 

Direct Relief remains committed to supporting frontline health services in Warrap State and expanding access to essential medicines in areas facing severe humanitarian strain. 

Emergency Medical Aid Delivered After Severe Flooding in Mexico

This past month, severe flooding triggered by Tropical Storms Priscilla, Raymond, and Gerry, combined with weeks of heavy monsoon rains, has devastated large areas of central Mexico. More than 200,000 people have been displaced, and many communities remain isolated due to collapsed bridges and landslides. With health services disrupted, local authorities report growing humanitarian needs, particularly among communities in temporary shelters and rural areas now difficult to reach by ground. 

In response, Direct Relief has mobilized emergency medical support to restore access to care, prioritizing treatment for respiratory infections, injuries, waterborne illnesses, and chronic disease disruptions such as diabetes and hypertension.  

To date, Direct Relief has delivered over $90,000 in medical aid, including essential medicines and field medic packs for triage and trauma care. Direct Relief has also provided $25,000 in emergency grant funding to strengthen local medical outreach and support partner response operations.

Additional assistance is underway in coordination with Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA), the Guerrero Ministry of Health Urgent Care Unit, and Medical IMPACT as evolving health needs continue to emerge. 

Operational Snapshot

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 755 shipments containing 4 million doses of medication this past week to organizations, including the following:

AROUND THE WORLD

Globally, Direct Relief shipped over 24.8 million defined daily doses of medication, totaling 111,203 lbs., to countries including the following:

YEAR-TO-DATE

Since January 1, 2025, Direct Relief has delivered 23.5K shipments to 2,569 partner organizations in 54 U.S. states and territories and 86 countries. These shipments contained 266.2 million defined daily doses of medication, valued at $1.8 billion wholesale, totaling 3.4 million lbs.

IN THE NEWS

Direct Relief Mobilizes Ahead of Storm in Southern California | News Channel 3-12 

Mitski Surprise-Releases The Land: The Live Album | Pitchfork 

“La tormenta”, documental sobre la recuperación de Puerto Rico tras el huracán María, se presentará en el Lusca Film Fest – El Nuevo Día 

Anthem Awards Community Voice 

SEEHN Secretariat Meets with Direct Relief Representatives to Explore Regional Collaboration | SEEHN 

FedEx Helps Direct Relief Sustain Response to Landslides in Rural India 

The post Medical Support Departs for Alaska, Mexico Flood Response Efforts appeared first on Direct Relief.

Medications and supplies shipped this week included treatments for chronic health conditions and mental health, as well as emergency response support.

Infants in Lebanon Breathe Easier with Respiratory Medicines

A critical medication for infants who need respiratory support has arrived at 10 hospitals in Lebanon. Nonprofit Anera has delivered Beractant-Survanta, a critical lung surfactant for premature infants born before 34 weeks, to the NICUs of 10 public hospitals across the country.  

The medication, donated by Direct Relief, helps babies born prematurely to breathe until their lungs are strong enough to do it on their own. The donation is the most recent shipment of this life-saving medicine, covering the national need for five months and estimated to save the lives of 150 newborns, increasing survival rates by at least 45% compared to similar treatments, according to Anera. 

Direct Relief has provided more than $261 million in medical support to Lebanon since 2009.

Medication Hub in Honduras Gets Aid the Last Mile

This week, the Ruth Paz Foundation in Honduras highlighted ongoing activity at the medical warehouse and distribution center in San Pedro Sula, where medicines and health supplies are continuing to move through the facility to reach hospitals and clinics across the country.

The distribution center, developed with funding and support from Direct Relief and inaugurated in April 2024, has strengthened Honduras’s medical supply chain by improving storage capacity and inventory management. With the facility integrated into regular operations, Ruth Paz is able to manage larger shipments and ensure a steady flow of essential medicines to patients who face barriers to care.

The site also serves as a key resource during emergencies, helping local healthcare providers respond more quickly to hurricanes, disease outbreaks, and other crises.

Direct Relief has partnered with the Ruth Paz Foundation for more than a decade, providing over $34 million in medical material aid.

Tropical Storm Jerry Churns Through Atlantic

Direct Relief is monitoring Tropical Storm Jerry as warnings remain in effect across parts of the Eastern Caribbean. While the storm is not currently forecast to make landfall, heavy rain and storm surge are expected in the region.

Direct Relief has coordinated with regional partner the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and remains ready to support. Emergency resources already prepositioned in the region include three Hurricane Preparedness Packs and 54 emergency medical backpacks for rapid deployment. Recent resilience investments through Direct Relief’s $3 million grant to OECS have also strengthened medical infrastructure and emergency readiness across the region.

Direct Relief Equips Search and Rescue Organization with New Vehicle

With support from Direct Relief, Ventura County East Valley Search and Rescue has enhanced its emergency response capacity with a new 4×4 rescue vehicle. The vehicle was funded through Direct Relief’s Search and Rescue Fund, which provides equipment and operational support to volunteer rescue teams responding to emergencies and disasters.

The new vehicle is currently in active use for search and rescue missions in remote or difficult terrain, and evacuations of residents who cannot safely leave on their own. The vehicle also supports field logistics, such as transporting water, equipment, and medical supplies.

In addition to vehicle funding, Direct Relief provided emergency operating funds during the recent Los Angeles wildfires to support the team’s mutual aid deployments.

Operational Snapshot

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 444 shipments containing 1.8 million doses of medication this past week to organizations, including the following:

AROUND THE WORLD

Globally, Direct Relief shipped over 8.8 million defined daily doses of medication, totaling 68,909 lbs., to countries including the following:

YEAR-TO-DATE

Since January 1, 2025, Direct Relief has delivered 22.7K shipments to 2,550 partner organizations in 54 U.S. states and territories and 86 countries. These shipments contained 241.3 million defined daily doses of medication, valued at $1.6 billion wholesale, totaling 3.3 million lbs.

The post Helping Infants Breathe in Lebanon, Distributing Medicines in Honduras, and More appeared first on Direct Relief.

Medications and supplies shipped this week included rare disease treatments, diabetes medications, autoimmune therapies, and IV fluids.

Direct Relief Welcomes Partners from Nepal’s Dhulikhel Hospital

On Tuesday, Direct Relief welcomed longtime partners from Dhulikhel Hospital in Nepal to the organization’s Santa Barbara, California, headquarters. Dr. Ram Kantha Makaju Shrestha, founder and executive director, and Dr. Abha Shrestha, senior consultant in obstetrics and gynecology, toured the organization’s warehouse and briefed staff about the hospital’s work in Nepal.

Dhulikhel Hospital, based in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, is a leading non-profit hospital known for expanding access to quality healthcare, training future medical leaders, and serving underserved communities. 

Direct Relief has worked with Dhulikhel Hospital for more than a decade, collaborating on disaster response (including the 2015 earthquake, Covid-19 pandemic, and 2024 flooding) and supporting ongoing medical donation programs.

Portable Ultrasound Devices Expand Care for Patients in Ukraine

Last week, the Association Internationale de Coopération Médicale, or AICM, shared that 140 family doctors and pediatricians in Chernihiv, Ukraine, are now using the mini-ultrasound device “Papillon,”enabling earlier detection of serious health issues and referrals for specialized care. More than 2,500 patients have been examined monthly free of charge, and ongoing trainings — including one last week on urological health — continue to expand the program’s impact.

Direct Relief is proud to partner with AICM on this work. In 2022, Direct Relief provided a $100,000 grant to help supply portable ultrasound devices and training for medical staff in the Chernihiv region, reducing delays in diagnosis and improving access to care. This collaboration continues to strengthen health systems and provide life-saving support in Ukraine.

Operational Snapshot

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 509 shipments containing 327,379 doses of medication this past week to organizations, including the following:

Around the World

Globally, Direct Relief shipped over 406,317 defined daily doses of medication, totaling 11,588 lbs., to countries including the following:

YEAR-TO-DATE

Since January 1, 2025, Direct Relief has delivered 20.4K shipments to 2,438 partner organizations in 54 U.S. states and territories and 86 countries. These shipments included 190.2 million defined daily doses of medication, valued at $1.5 billion wholesale, totaling 2.9 million lbs.

The post Medical Support Dispatched to 10 Countries Over Past Week appeared first on Direct Relief.

Medications and supplies shipped this week included cancer treatments, rare disease therapies, diabetes management medications, and more.

Medications Support Essential Health Services in Georgia, South Africa

Medicines, over-the-counter items, and other requested medical support arrived this week in Atlanta, Georgia, to support critical screening and health services.

SisterLove Inc. is an Atlanta-based organization founded in 1989 in response to a lack of attention and resources for Black women impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The organization provides comprehensive sexual health services, including free HIV/STI screenings and care support, across Atlanta. The organization also operates SisterLove International, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, which is focused on HIV prevention and treatment as well as reproductive health.

Direct Relief has provided more than $245,000 in medical support to the organization, including medications for HIV/AIDS treatments, contraceptives, and essential medicines, as well as a grant through Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity to support a mobile bus that provides health services in the community.

Strengthening Cold Chain Capacity in Colombia

In June, Direct Relief expanded cold chain capacity to support Colombia’s efforts to address yellow fever in the country. In coordination with the Pan American Health Organization, Direct Relief provided 10 ultracold portable freezers to support testing efforts.

The country has recorded an increase in yellow fever in 2025, as well as rising case numbers of dengue fever. Transporting samples from rural areas of Colombia to testing facilities in urban areas proved challenging, with samples often becoming unusable during the long journey.

Direct Relief sent 10 ultra-cold freezers to Colombia to ensure that samples remained viable for testing, which play a crucial role in enabling healthcare workers to identify and treat patients before outbreaks escalate. Transportation of the freezers was provided by FedEx.

Operational Snapshot

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief 257 shipments departed containing 436,423 doses of medication during the past week to organizations, including the following:

Around the World

Globally, Direct Relief shipped over 2.0 million defined daily doses of medication, totaling 30,954 lbs., to countries including the following:

YEAR-TO-DATE

Since January 1, 2025, Direct Relief has delivered 19.9K shipments to 2,400 partner organizations in 54 U.S. states and territories and 86 countries. These shipments included 189.4 million defined daily doses of medication, valued at $1.4 billion wholesale, totaling 2.9 million lbs.

In the News

How Direct Relief and FedEx Are Helping Fight Disease Outbreaks in Colombia – FedEx

20 Years After Hurricane Katrina: What Humanitarian Organizations Learned from the Historic Storm – Fox Weather

Equipping Midwives for Success and Transforming Maternal Health in Nigeria – Angels in Medicine

The post Medical Support Departs for 15 Countries appeared first on Direct Relief.

The CHI Community Health Conference and Expo was the nation’s largest network of primary care providers made up of community health centers, or CHCs, and was hosted by the National Association of Community Health Centers, or NACHC.

These health centers are currently serving a record-breaking number of patients – more than ever in their 60-year history. Many health center patients lack insurance or are underinsured, and can seek care at health centers, regardless of ability to pay. Community health centers are often the first and only point of care for millions in underserved areas, and also play a critical role during disasters, often acting as first responders during times of crisis.

The conference brought together nearly 3,000 CHC leaders from across the nation alongside more than 180 exhibitors representing the full healthcare spectrum. Sessions covered a wide array of topics, including food as medicine initiatives and chronic disease management. Strategic sessions also addressed the safe and responsible integration of artificial intelligence into clinical practice.

NACHC CEO Dr. Kyu Rhee kicked off the general session on Monday morning, with a surprise visit from Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster, to talk about the importance of food as medicine and the key role health centers play in the nation’s primary care health system.

Rhee also spoke about the important role health centers play during disasters and other emergencies. Rhee spoke about visiting a health center in Maui impacted by the 2023 Lahaina wildfires, and how staff immediately responded to those fires, and are still responding two years later, supporting patients with post-traumatic stress and ongoing health needs.

“[Health centers] are the first, and the last, responders, and Direct Relief has been a partner of choice to support this work,” Rhee said. “They work to help people recover from disasters and improve the quality of their lives.”

Rhee introduced Direct Relief CEO Amy Weaver, who thanked health centers and their staff for the “vital, complex, and often unsung work that you do every single day.”

During the time Direct Relief has supported health centers during disasters, as well as on an ongoing basis, “we’ve seen your work up close. We’ve seen your patients’ A1C levels drop. We’ve met patients whose lives turned around because of your HIV treatment, your substance use recovery programs, your trauma care. We’ve seen your cooking classes, the fresh produce, the trust you build every day,” she said.

Health centers have filled a vital role in the nation’s safety net since the civil rights era, pairing medical care with deep understanding. “You are more vital than ever to Direct Relief’s mission of increasing health for all people – regardless of religion, politics, or ability to pay,” she said.

Weaver’s remarks can be found here.

Direct Relief’s support of health centers in the United States dates back to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when Direct Relief worked to reach out to health centers in impacted communities and backstop them with critical medical support. Up to that time, Direct Relief’s support had primarily focused on international shipments of medication, but the need in the U.S., post-Katrina, called for a new strategy.

“What Direct Relief realized – rather painfully – at that moment was that we could send medicine to Liberia, but we didn’t have the expertise or licensing to send medicine to Louisiana,” she said.

That changed with a call to the National Association of Community Health Centers, Weaver said, which provided guidance and connected Direct Relief with local health centers in the impacted areas. “We witnessed these community health centers – along with free clinics, charitable pharmacies, and volunteer doctors and nurses sleeping in churches – step up in the weeks afterward to care for people who’d lost their homes and their medicines,” she said.

At that time, Direct Relief had never responded to a domestic disaster on a large scale. But within six months, the organization had provided more than $50 million in medical aid and funding assistance to health centers in the Gulf Coast, establishing a network of partners in the region. That move inspired Direct Relief to pivot its focus from being solely international to becoming the largest charitable medicines program in the United States, supporting all 50 states and four U.S. territories.

Since that time, Direct Relief has shipped more than $1 billion wholesale in medical aid to community health center partners, and over 100,000 deliveries – all of it completely free of cost. The organization has also awarded more than $128 million in funding to over 600 health centers to support community health, access, resilient power, mobile health, and disaster response.

As health centers work to continue to serve patients across the U.S., Weaver encouraged them to keep going in that spirit of service and deep knowledge of their own communities.

“You’re local experts, but you have universal wisdom to share,” she said. “And together, we are unstoppable.”

The post “Together, We Are Unstoppable”: Direct Relief CEO Amy Weaver Speaks to Health Center Leaders in Chicago appeared first on Direct Relief.

Direct Relief surveyed federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and free & charitable clinics across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to understand how power loss from natural disasters disrupts healthcare for the nation’s most vulnerable populations. This three-part report reveals the hidden health consequences of climate disasters—and the urgent need for resilient healthcare infrastructure.

Top findings among 80 survey respondents

Direct Relief would like to thank the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, and the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, which helped us conduct the study. 

*Note on terminology: In this report, “health clinic” or “clinic” refers to two main types of safety-net healthcare providers in the United States: Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), often called community health centers, and Free & Charitable Clinics and Pharmacies (FCCs). The FQHC category also includes community health centers designated as “look-alikes” — providers that meet all Health Center Program standards but do not receive Section 330 grant funding. Many of these organizations operate more than one clinic site.

Lights Out: Part I

How Power Loss From Helene and Milton Disrupted Care for Thousands Across Southeast

Hurricanes Helene and Milton 

The post Lights Out – Intro: The Scope and Impact of Storm-Driven Power Loss on Safety-Net Clinics appeared first on Direct Relief.

Paths of Destruction 

Hurricanes Helene and Milton 

Power Outages from Hurricanes Helene and Milton Closed Clinics at 54% of Safety-Net Healthcare Providers Surveyed in FL, NC, SC and GA: Direct Relief Study 

Nearly 28,000 Medical Appointments Canceled;

$12.9 Million in Revenue Lost;

Expensive Medicines and Vaccines Spoiled 

When Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton barreled across Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, and South Carolina one after the other in late September and early October 2024, they caused widespread electrical power outages that forced temporary closures at more than half of safety-net healthcare providers responding to a survey conducted by Direct Relief. 

Among 80 community health centers and free & charitable clinics responding to the survey, 43 (54%) said power loss forced the temporary closure of at least one clinic site. 

The power outages led to nearly 28,000 canceled or delayed patient visits, an outcome tied to negative health outcomes including higher mortality. Nearly one-fourth (19) of the providers were forced to discard temperature-sensitive medicine or vaccines when their refrigerators lost power. Twenty-three organizations reported losing revenue totaling $12.9 million while they were closed. 

The information comes from one of the broadest surveys yet conducted on how power outages caused by natural disasters impact healthcare. Direct Relief distributed surveys to 394 federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and free & charitable clinics and pharmacies (FCCs) in the four states most impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The 80 organizations responding to the survey include 25 FQHCs and 55 FCCs, which operate a total of approximately 500 clinical sites. All safety-net organizations in the four states combined serve more than 850,000 patients. 

Among 80 survey respondents: 

• Fifty organizations (62%) lost power at one or more clinic sites in the wake of the hurricanes 
• Forty-seven organizations (59%) were forced to close at least one clinic site due to any hurricane-related cause 
• Forty-three (54%) said power loss forced the temporary closure of at least one clinic site 
• Of those 43, 26 cited both power loss and other factors, such as staff safety or unavailability, as reasons for closure 
• Four organizations said they closed clinic sites for reasons that didn’t include power loss 

The total numbers of closed clinics and cancelled patient visits in the four states are almost certainly much higher, as the 80 respondents represent fewer than a fifth of the FQHCs and FCCs in these states. 

Lost access to care poses a serious risk to patients when they are unable to receive medicine or treatment for chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, or acute problems like infections. A growing body of research shows that hurricanes and other natural disasters lead to a higher-than-normal long-term death rate in affected communities, in part due to lost access to healthcare. The long-term increase in deaths from hurricanes far exceeds the number of lives immediately lost from storm-driven water and wind.  

FQHCs and FCCs comprise the country’s healthcare safety net. They serve both rural and low-income urban communities where healthcare options are limited. Among patients of FCCs in 2024, 84% lacked health insurance. FQHC patients have higher rates of chronic conditions like diabetes and high cholesterol, and 32% report their health as fair or poor, vs. 18% of the general U.S. population. Poorer health makes people more medically vulnerable during and after an extreme weather event. 

“Health centers and clinics are often the bedrock healthcare providers in their communities. When power goes out, their ability to deliver critical, even life-saving services is compromised, leaving vulnerable patients at serious risk.” 

– Sara Rossi, Managing Director of the Health Resiliency Fund at Direct Relief

Power loss can cause significant direct financial costs to safety-net healthcare facilities, which operate on extremely narrow margins. These costs come from lost revenue, spoilage of vaccines and medications, equipment damage, data loss, and increased operating costs. 

The power outages at individual clinics lasted between several hours and nearly three weeks, with a median outage of just under two days (47 hours), and one organization reporting a 19-day outage. Power outages cost FQHCs an average of $612,000 in lost revenue from missed patient appointments. Spoiled insulins, vaccines, and other temperature-sensitive medications can add up to tens of thousands of dollars in losses – one clinic reported losing $60,000 worth of vaccines. 

While hospitals are required to have backup power systems for emergencies and typically must keep enough fuel on hand to run generators for at least four days, FQHCs and FCCs have no such mandates. Only 12% of responding organizations had backup power at all of their service delivery sites, 38% had backup power at only some of their sites, and 50% had no backup power at all. Of the 41 facilities that had at least some backup power, seven (17%) reported that their backup power had failed during the storms, four of them due to running out of fuel. 

While loss of power was a significant disruptor of clinics’ ability to operate, individual clinics faced a wide variety of additional challenges that contributed to or extended their closures. Some sites, including in western North Carolina, were heavily damaged by flooding – or even destroyed, like Mountain Community Health Partnership’s facility in Micaville, NC. In other cases, staff members were unable to travel to work due to damaged roads, or because they had to relocate after their homes were damaged. Appalachian Mountain Community Health Centers in Asheville, NC, had no running water. In St. Petersburg, Fla., Evara Health was forced to shut because school closures required staff members to stay home with their children. 

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Without Electrical Power, Healthcare Stops 

Healthcare today is almost completely dependent on electrical power. Without power, clinics can’t operate. They are unable to examine patients, schedule appointments, access electronic health records, take x-rays, clean teeth, fill cavities, or dispense prescriptions. Lost power to pharmaceutical refrigerators spoils insulin, vaccines and other temperature-controlled medicines, reducing medicine availability and causing financial losses. Power runs dental tools, lights up windowless exam rooms, and – in one of the hottest and most humid areas of the country – keeps the clinics air-conditioned. 

“If this building loses its power, I’m pretty much dead in the water for that day, and then I’m in a scramble mode to try and keep my vaccines alive. Without power, my X-ray’s down, my ultrasound’s down, my electronic health records are usually down.” 

– John Newman, Executive Director and Chief Medical Officer at Volunteers in Medicine in Hilton Head Island, SC

The free clinic’s dental clinic shuts down without power, as does the water supply to the hydroponic farm that grows healthy produce for its patients. 

Power outages after Hurricane Helene forced Volunteers in Medicine to close its clinic on Daufuskie Island for more than eight days, and its Hilton Head Island clinic for two days, leading to more than 300 missed or delayed patient visits. 

Patient Visits Canceled 

Other findings from the survey: 

• One in three organizations lost power at multiple sites 
• Sixteen of the 25 responding FQHCs lost power at more than three clinic sites 
• Twenty-three of 37 (62%) Florida organizations surveyed lost power, compared to six of nine (67%) in Georgia, 12 of 21 (57%) in North Carolina, and eight of 12 (75%) in South Carolina. 
• Forty-four clinics reported 27,857 canceled patient visits. The median per clinic was 50, and the mean was 633. 
• Forty-five clinics have patients who rely on electricity-powered durable medical equipment, some of it required to sustain life, such as oxygen concentrators. The median number of patients on these devices per organization was 20. 

“It’s shocking when you look at these numbers and you realize the extent to which these disruptions impacted these organizations,” said Gianna Van Winkle, Director of Emergency Management Programs at the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, which helped Direct Relief conduct the survey in Florida. 

In Florida alone, FQHCs reported: 

• Over 35 individual sites losing power across 12 organizations 
• A median of 13 hours and maximum of 315 hours with no power 
• 10,630 total patient visits canceled or missed due to power outage across 12 organizations, with a median of 350 per organization 

“Those 10,000 visits missed are 10,000 opportunities to not only provide folks with medical care, but also, in a time of great need, to provide them with reassurance that there is support available in their community.” 

– Gianna Van Winkle, Director of Emergency Management Programs at the Florida Association of Community Health Centers

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How Power Outages Disrupted Care 

Hurricane Helene tore across the Georgia border early the morning of Sep. 27, after cutting through the Florida Panhandle in less than two hours. It took out power for 12 of East Georgia Healthcare’s clinics for periods ranging from 58 hours to 207 hours. The Swainsboro-based FQHC, which serves patients in 14 Georgia counties, had to cancel nearly 2,000 patient visits and lost $159,000 in revenue. 

In Bradenton, Fla., Turning Points (a free clinic and homeless services center) sits a few miles from where the Manatee River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. It lost power for 16 hours after Hurricane Helene and 28 hours after Hurricane Milton, leading to 60 canceled patient visits. Without power, the clinic had no air conditioning, amid temperatures in the upper 80s and humidity above 75%. It had no lighting in its windowless exam rooms, and – critically – no access to its medical and dental electronic medical record systems. Turning Points’ closure also cut off access to vital services it provides for local homeless people, including food, showers and laundry. The organization also reported $40,000 in infrastructure damage. 

“Access to a patient’s medical chart is crucial for providing care. I need to see your test results, what prescriptions we prescribed you, so that I can make informed decisions. We’re not going to put their health in jeopardy.”

– Kathleen Cramer, Executive Director at Turning Points

After the twin hurricanes last fall, Turning Points acquired a Starlink satellite-based internet system for backup use, because the clinic’s local internet services provider is consistently unreliable. 

Power Outage Durations (FQHCs and FCCs)

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The Cost of Healthcare Safety Net Clinic Closures  

Federally qualified health centers care for more than 32 million patients (nearly 1 in 10 U.S. residents), including one in five rural residents, one in five uninsured people and one in three people living in poverty. FQHCs are often the main healthcare provider in rural and low-income urban communities across the country, treating a mix of insured and uninsured patients. These safety-net organizations typically provide services including primary care, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, mental health and substance abuse services, and more. 

In the wake of a disaster, FQHCs provide continuity of care for patients who have chronic medical conditions and need uninterrupted access to medications, and they also alleviate pressure on local emergency rooms, said Taina Lopez, Director of Emergency Management at the National Association of Community Health Centers. “They’re a haven for the communities that they serve.” 

After hurricanes, FQHCs and free clinics, which are trusted community resources, often act as essential hubs for people affected by the disaster: many distribute bottled water and food, help connect people to disaster relief and other public services, and educate people about available resources like rental assistance programs. Health center staff responding to storms or flooding have organized pharmaceutical deliveries for patients after floods, called patients post-disaster to check in on healthcare needs or done bedside visits for less-mobile patients, provided mental health support to first responders as well as patients, and even helped patients clean out flood-damaged houses. 

Free & charitable clinics and pharmacies care for 1.7 million Americans – including  over 650,000 new patients last year – with six million patient visits annually. They typically provide primary and preventive care, mental health services, and access to free or low-cost medicine, and may provide additional services including dental care. 

Missed medical care – particularly in the often chaotic, high-stress aftermath of a disaster – can be much more consequential for free clinic patients than it is for financially secure Americans. 

“They could have multiple jobs, or jobs that do not allow them to get out during the day. They may have to depend on somebody to drive them. They may have to depend on a family member to come because they do not speak English. When you have that delay, there is a chance that that patient may not be coming back.”

– Ariana Gordillo De Vivero, Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics.

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Operational Disruption, Loss of Refrigerated Medicines and Vaccines 

Closing clinics for several days also causes a cascade of canceled appointments that must then be rescheduled, in clinics that often operate at full capacity and whose own staff may have been displaced by the disaster. 

“We’re busy, so if I cancel this week, it’s not like next week is empty and I could just push them all to the next week,” said Newman at Hilton Head’s Volunteers in Medicine. “Then it’s this absolute scramble the next week trying to do two weeks’ worth of work in one week.” He notes that some of the specialist physicians who volunteer at the clinic are only available a couple days a month, so a day of cancellations may mean long delays for those patients. 

Lost medicine is another significant cost. Nine FQHCs and 10 free & charitable clinics responding to Direct Relief’s survey reported having to discard refrigerated medicines and vaccines due to power loss. 

South Central Primary Care, a Georgia FQHC with 14 sites, lost $60,000 worth of vaccines and $500,000 in revenue. The organization’s representative related the following: “Hurricane Helene took out our entire service area. All sites were down for over one week. [We] started opening back up when possible, the next week. It took an additional two weeks after that for our patient volume to be where it was before the storm. Just because our offices were open did not mean that our patients had the ability to travel. We swapped staff around between sites. We had two employees who lost their homes and were living in tents.” 

Spoiled medicines don’t just come with a financial cost: Health centers have reported an increased need for Tdap vaccinations, which require cold-chain storage and transport, in the aftermath of hurricanes, as people come into contact with potentially contaminated water. Insulin, another cold-chain medication, is also frequently requested by patients with Type 2 diabetes who have been separated from their medications. Power losses can destroy large caches of these medications, which must be available to prevent tetanus infections and complications from diabetes. 

Hurricane Helene cut off Greenville Free Medical Clinic’s power for between 24 and 200 hours at its four locations in western South Carolina, and knocked out its internet service for 12 days due to damaged power poles. 

“The only reason we did not lose approximately $300,000 worth of vaccines, insulins, or other medications is because our hospital agreed to store our inventory until power was restored,” the organization reported. “This was a very tedious process to move the product over and back from the hospital system, and had to be undertaken in the very early hours after the storm, posing a safety risk for staff involved.” 

Hurricane Helene cut off Greenville Free Medical Clinic’s power for between 24 and 200 hours at its four locations in western South Carolina, and knocked out its internet service for 12 days due to damaged power poles. 

Note: In July 2025, Direct Relief’s Power for Health program approved a $400,000 grant to Greenville Free Medical Clinic to cover the cost of a solar microgrid design and installation process, including project management and five years of operations and maintenance costs. The organization applied for funding after Hurricane Helene, and the grant is co-funded from Direct Relief’s Hurricane Helene fund and Power for Health. 

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Post-Storm Surge in Patient Needs 

Among the survey respondents, 38% of organizations reported an increase in patients seeking care after the storms, including 21% that reported an increase in patient volume of up to 10%, and 16% reporting an increase in volume of 10% or more. 

Two free & charitable clinics in Florida – Premier Mobile Health Services in Ft. Myers and Oceana Community Health in Boynton Beach – reported a surge of more than 50% in patient volume after the storms. Ft. Myers, where Premier Mobile Health Services is located, is about 75 miles from where Hurricane Milton struck land. The town experienced significant flooding, a tornado and widespread power outages. The area was still recovering from flooding from Hurricane Helene’s storm surge when Milton roared through the area 13 days later. Premier said additional patients came to their facilities for reasons including lost access to primary care doctors, storm-related injuries, or conditions brought on by disaster-related stress. 

Other organizations also reported a surge in demand from new patients who lost access to their regular healthcare providers. Fallen trees, washed-out roads and flooding made it impossible for many to reach their usual primary care sources. Others were displaced far from their homes. 

Health clinics replaced insulin and other essential medicines for patients who had lost their supplies during the storm or were unable to refill prescriptions at their usual pharmacies. Others reported increased post-hurricane demand for care for lacerations, for injuries suffered during clean-up operations, and for dental emergencies. 

Blue Ridge Health, a large FQHC in western North Carolina, saw flooding, building damage, and loss of running water across its 68 sites, which all lost power for at least four days, with some out of power for over a week. The organization reported $400,000 in lost revenue and $700,000 worth of damage to infrastructure from flooding. Its clinics were also affected by loss of water supply, building damage, flooding, unavailable staff, and loss of telephone and internet connectivity. 

As Blue Ridge’s clinics reopened, providers saw increased demand for behavioral health services addressing disaster-related trauma, and increased need for medications due to surrounding medical clinics remaining closed, in addition to more overall demand for care for acute and chronic conditions. 

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Lost Revenue

In Hendersonville, NC, Henderson County Free Medical Clinic saw more than a 25% increase in patient demand, which it attributes to other healthcare organizations closing their facilities, or to patients being unable to reach their providers due to washed out roads and dangerous travel conditions. 

Organizations reported a total of $12.9 million in lost revenue from the outages. Of the 21 FQHCs that reported power loss, 16 said the power loss led to loss of revenue. Among those 16, power loss from the storms cost the FQHCs an average of $803,000 in lost revenue, and a median loss of $350,000. 

At free & charitable clinics, revenue loss was less. As their name indicates, free clinics provide much of their care without charge. Of the 29 FCCs that reported power loss, only seven reported revenue loss, with an average loss of about $10,200 and a median loss of $5,900. 

Revenue loss for organizations with power outages at one or more sites* (n = 23) 

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From Lost Power to Lost Health and Lives 

Direct Relief’s study adds to a growing body of research on how natural disasters impact public health beyond the immediate physical danger of water, wind and fire. 

A 2024 study in Nature found that that long-term excess deaths attributable to hurricanes can be 300 or more times higher than immediate deaths. The disruptions hurricanes inflict upon people’s lives set them on a path to poor health that eventually cuts short their lives. The authors tracked the effects of all 501 hurricanes that hit the continental United States between 1930 and 2015 and found that while the average hurricane caused 24 immediate deaths, the storms on average led to between roughly 7,170 and 11,430 additional deaths in the 20 years after landfall. The data showed that 13% of deaths in Florida, 11% of deaths in North Carolina, and 9% of deaths in South Carolina during this period can be traced to their hurricane-prone climates. 

Although the death toll in Puerto Rico from 2017’s Hurricane Maria was officially 64, a 2018 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found the hurricane caused a total of 4,645 additional deaths and a 62% increase in the mortality rate in the 102 days after the storm, compared with the same period in 2016. 

“Disasters trigger complex cascades of events that ultimately may cause additional future mortality,” the authors of the Nature paper wrote. 

A study by Direct Relief and others published in June 2025 in the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness detailed the healthcare impacts of disrupted healthcare to people affected by the 2022 Oak Fire in Mariposa County, Calif. Of the respondents, one in in five (21%) missed or delayed medical appointments due to the fire, and 45% of those people reported months-long delays in receiving care. 21% reported harm to their health from delays in medical care related to the fire. The people who experienced the most delays had more medical conditions (mean 4.1 vs. 2.4) and used more medical devices (median 4 vs. 2), making them more vulnerable to loss of care. 

“Interruptions to health care access during and in the aftermath of disasters impact health long after the initial insult,” the authors wrote. 

Loss of power after hurricanes has been shown to lead to more deaths through mechanisms ranging from carbon monoxide poisoning from backup generators to overheating after the loss of air conditioning. Twelve residents of a Miami-area nursing home died from heat exposure after 2017’s Hurricane Irma cut off power for their air conditioning. A subsequent analysis found that nursing home residents who experienced power loss from Hurricane Irma had a 25% higher chance of dying within seven days compared to those who did not. 

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Survey Methodology Overview and Terminology 

In March 2025, Direct Relief surveyed 394 federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and free & charitable clinics in the four states most impacted by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Each of these organizations operates one or more clinic sites. FQHCs generally have multiple care delivery sites across their service regions, while free & charitable clinics most commonly (but not always) have only a single location. 

The 394 organizations surveyed included 145 FQHC organizations and 249 free & charitable clinic organizations. That represents most of the FQHCs in the four states, according to data from the Health Resources & Services Administration, and 84% of the estimated 298 free & charitable clinics and pharmacies in the region, according to the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics. The 80 respondents included 25 FQHCs (about 17% of regional FQHCs) and 55 free & charitable clinics (about 19% of FCCs). 

Lights Out: Part ll

Power Reliability and Backup Power at Safety Net Clinics

Hurricanes Helene and Milton 

The post Lights Out: Part I – How Power Loss From Helene and Milton Disrupted Care for Thousands Across Southeast appeared first on Direct Relief.

Power is Unreliable Even Without Hurricanes 

Notably, hurricanes aren’t the only cause of power loss for these safety-net clinics. More than 35% of the organizations said lack of reliable power is an ongoing concern in their area, with nearly one in five (20%) saying they lose power at least once per quarter. Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms also bring down power lines, while periods of excessive heat often lead to intermittent localized outages. 

Three organizations, including Palmetto Health Council in Palmetto, Ga., report losing power at least once per month. (Two of Palmetto’s eight clinic locations lost power when Hurricane Helene struck, one of them for 36 hours). 

Volunteers In Medicine in Hilton Head Island, SC, which had intermittent power outages for two days after Hurricane Helene, also experiences outages during heavy thunderstorms. There is no natural gas supply to the island. The clinic has a gasoline-powered generator that can be manually connected to keep the pharmaceutical refrigerators running, with a tank that has enough fuel to run for about two days. 

Volunteers in Medicine also runs a small clinic on the neighboring Daufuskie Island, which lost its grid power for more than eight days.

“There’s a significant population that lives on Daufuskie that is never coming off Daufuskie that [doesn’t] get health care, and there’s not even a doctor’s clinic on Daufuskie, which is why our presence there is so important.” 

– Volunteers in Medicine’s Newman

More frequent and damaging tornadoes and other types of storms are also taking a toll on the power supply, while the demands of keeping indoor temperatures bearable amid more extreme heat are breaking down HVAC systems more quickly, said Van Winkle of the Florida Association of Community Health Centers. 

1,791 tornadoes struck the United States in 2024, making it the second-worst year on record for U.S. tornadoes. The spike was driven in part by hurricane activity. Hurricane Milton spawned 46 tornadoes in Florida—a new state record for a single outbreak. 

Unlike with hurricanes, whose path and intensity can be tracked as they approach, with tornadoes “you just never know where or how bad it will be,” Van Winkle said. Many of the tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Milton struck the eastern coast of Florida, across the state from where the storm first landed, she pointed out. “It just adds to the uncertainty and the anxiety collectively around the state. The threat is very real and very widespread.” 

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Availability and Uses for Backup Power 

Among the 80 organizations responding to the survey, only 12% had backup power at all of their service delivery sites, 38% had backup power at some of their sites, and 50% had no backup power at all.  

FQHCs were far more likely to have backup power: Among FQHCs, 23 of the 25 had at least some backup power (primarily generators powered by fossil fuels). Three FQHC organizations had batteries, one of which was paired with solar panels.  

Among FCCs, only 17 of the 55 had at least some backup power, while 38 had none. 

At those FQHCs, backup power enables a crucial set of capabilities, respondents said. In addition to the most commonly cited uses of backup power – protecting refrigerated medicine, being able to remain open and treat patients, and accessing medical records – respondents cited several more specialized but likewise essential functions. These include building security (by operating the badge readers that allow staff to access the clinic), ensuring power remains on during medical procedures, being able to order prescriptions, and providing a place for people to use electricity-powered home medical devices.

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Backup Power at Federally Qualified Health Centers

Do Sites Have Backup Power (FQHCs)? 

Types of Backup Power (FQHCs)

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Backup Power at Free & Charitable Clinics 

Do Sites Have Backup Power (FCCs)?

Types of Backup Power (FCCs)

Among the 33 organizations that had no backup power but were interested in setting up such systems (two FQHCs and 31 FCCs), respondents said backup power would allow them to continue to operate their clinics during a power outage, to run critical systems including electronic health records, air conditioning, and telephone systems, and to maintain refrigeration for medicines and vaccines. 

First Choice Primary Care, an FQHC in Macon, Ga., has backup power at some of its six sites – powered by natural gas, and used to back up pharmaceutical refrigerators – but is interested in adding backup capacity to enable continue operation when grid power goes down. “Acquiring backup generators and alternative power sources would help ensure continuity of care during power outages,” the clinic said in its survey response.  

Asked what kind of additional backup power they would like, the organizations are most interested in generators using gas or diesel fuel, or in battery backup. 

What would backup power enable that would otherwise be impossible if utility power is lost? 

Lights Out: Part lll

Detailed Results on How Helene and Milton Disrupted Care

Hurricanes Helene and Milton 

The post Lights Out: Part II – Power Reliability and Backup Power at Safety Net Clinics appeared first on Direct Relief.

80 Responses from Four States

Number of Organizations Losing Power

Number of organizations losing power at at least one site 

Number of sites losing power among the 50 organizations that lost power 

Number of Organizations Losing Power by State

Note: For example, in Florida, there were seven organizations that lost power at more than three sites 

Number of Organizations Losing Power by Type 

Note: The numbers represent organizations, each of which may have multiple sites. For example, 16 FQHC organizations each lost power at more than three clinic sites. 

How Many Sites Were Closed Due to Hurricane-Related Power Outages?

Number of organizations closing at least one site due to hurricane-related power outages, including FQHCs and FCCs 

Number of sites closed due to power outages, among the 43 organizations that closed at least one site due to power outages 

Organizations Closing Sites Due to Hurricane-Related Power Outages by State

Organizations Closing Sites Due to Hurricane-Related Power Outages by Type

Additional Impacts

Canceled Patient Visits Due to Power Outages 

* Reported by a single organization

Approximate Power Outage Duration (Hours) 

* Reported by a single organization

Patients With Electricity-Powered Medical Equipment

* Reported by a single organization

Infrastructure Damage**

**Among organizations reporting over $0 of damage 

Emergency Fuel Cost

Reasons For Clinic Closure (Other Than Power Outages) 

The post Lights Out: Part III – Detailed Results on How Helene and Milton Disrupted Care appeared first on Direct Relief.

The International Confederation of Midwives, or ICM, a non-governmental global advocacy group representing more than 1 million midwives globally, relaunched a digital data hub in July 2025. The hub’s architects say the platform, which can be found on ICM’s website here, is structured to be intuitive and user-friendly for anyone who wants a deep dive into global maternal and infant health outcomes. Data scientists say they hope the public data can be used to help medical professionals advocate for better outcomes globally.

“When you see the data, when you see the country comparison, you can’t un-see it,” said Jessica White, who worked as the Global Midwives’ Data Hub Lead for ICM. “And I think when you know better, you do better.”

White is a cartographer and geospatial data analyst who has worked on midwifery, maternal and infant health-related data democratization, or making data more accessible to empower and inspire positive change, for the last six years.

The updated ICM Global Midwives’ Data Hub now allows users to compare countries side-by-side within three clicks.

For example, Norway has some of the best maternal and neonatal health outcomes in the world, and nearly 99% of births in the country are accompanied by a skilled medical professional. There are 9.4 midwives for every 10,000 people, according to the International Confederation of Midwives.

The country has a maternal mortality ratio of one maternal death per 100,000 live births. Only two of 194 countries that track the same data have better outcomes.

In Canada, the neonatal mortality rate is 3.3 per 1,000 live births, and the maternal mortality ratio is 12 out of every 100,000 live births, the lowest maternal mortality rate across North America. The United States isn’t far behind, but when the two are compared to Norway for the percentage of women using modern contraceptives, 70% of Canadian women use some sort of contraceptive, compared to 63% in Norway and only 53% in the United States.

White said the platform reflects the work of midwives, which varies across geographies. For example, higher-income countries historically have relied less on midwives. In countries that have fewer obstetricians and less access to skilled health professionals, birthing patients have relied on midwives for care. And trends can be seen over time, including impacts from the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Egypt, rates of maternal mortality consistently decreased over time. In 2004, that number was 43 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, but decreased to 19 per 100,000 live births in 2018. However, the country saw a sharp uptick in 2020 to 42 per 100,000 live births. The rate has since returned to the pre-pandemic ratio of 17 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023.

“There’s a paradigm shift from the way that we tend to look at healthcare,” White said. “We tend to look at it as outsiders and to see it from the mentality of the midwife, I think it’s really interesting. It’s getting back to change starts locally.”

White met with midwives from around the world to hear practical and pragmatic applications of data. Now, conditions from climate to conflict and crisis are considered for understanding health outcomes and to help others understand what factors that could help them improve conditions, especially in countries where fewer births are attended by skilled health professionals.  

“How can we do a better job of highlighting important and relevant indicators and insights so they can advocate more efficiently?” White said.

Namibia has also seen improvements. The country’s current maternal mortality rate is 149 out of 100,000 per live births, and the neonatal mortality rate is 18.7 per 1,000 live births. That’s a decrease from a peak of 547 maternal deaths in 2009, and 24 neonatal deaths per 100,000 in the year 2000.

Tekla Shiindi-Mbidi from the Independent Midwives Association of Namibia said the new hub has more visibility for midwives and shows the value of funding for and support of broader access to family planning through contraceptives.

“These numbers are trending in the right direction, but they remain above global targets,” Shiindi-Mbidi said during the ICM launch event in July. “The hub, therefore, helps us see the realities clearly, and it helps us make the case for change. At the same time, there are signs of progress.”

The post How Do Countries Compare in Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes? Updated Data Hub Has the Answers appeared first on Direct Relief.

The Jericho Road Wellness Clinic in Goma will receive $25,000 from Direct Relief for the local procurement of essential emergency medical supplies, including antibiotics, critical healthcare products, and medicines for chronic disease management. The grant is intended to cover the immediate medical needs for clinic patients until regular shipments are able to reach the team at Jericho Road.

The clinic, which offers essential health services, has seen an increase in patients, many of whom are internally displaced persons, or IDPs. HUntil recently, hundreds of thousands of displaced individuals lived in IDP camps surrounding Goma. However, these camps have now been evacuated and destroyed, further displacing residents as unrest from rebel groups continues to impact Goma and nearby regions.

Jericho Road staff reported health workers sleeping at the clinics to make sure they can provide services consistently to patients in need, as transportation to and from the clinics has been interrupted by military checkpoints.

Since the end of January, when the M23 militia captured Goma, the local airport has been closed, disrupting regular shipments to Jericho Road and other Direct Relief partners in the area. At the time of the airport’s shuttering, six Direct Relief shipments were underway to Goma. These shipments have now been rerouted to the airport in Kigali, Rwanda to be trucked to Goma.

“This work in Goma and across the globe would not be possible without the continuous and unwavering support of Direct Relief. We are so grateful,” said Fidele Menavanza, Jericho Road Community Health Center’s Chief Compliance and Global Health Officer.

Direct Relief has supported the Jericho Road clinic in Goma since 2016, including a recent mpox prevention program implemented by Jericho Road. The program provided critical education, outreach, and prevention support to large encampments of internally displaced people near Goma.

In addition to addressing mpox, Direct Relief has partnered with Jericho Road during previous public health emergencies, including the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC in 2019.

The post Amid Escalating Humanitarian Crisis in DRC, Direct Relief Provides $25,000 Emergency Aid to Goma Health Clinic appeared first on Direct Relief.

Long-term engagement has been key for the Venice Family Clinic’s Street Medicine Team.

For the last eight years, the clinic has worked with the unhoused population in Malibu to ensure they have access to medical care. Clinic staff say they anticipate an uptick in the area’s unhoused population following the L.A. wildfires. While Venice Family Clinic’s network of locations was not affected by the fires, its service area includes Malibu and Pacific Palisades, which lost vast amounts of residential housing and infrastructure during recent fires.

The clinic uses mobile units to provide critical and ongoing care to vulnerable populations who would otherwise lack access to consistent medical services. Clinic staff said people may be displaced or unhoused for months to several years following the natural disaster.

“We want to be a part of a directional plan where we’re supporting and enabling someone to be housing-ready,” said Dr. Coley King, Director of Homeless Health Care for Venice Family Clinic. Direct Relief staff delivered medical aid to King last week, who was conducting medical outreach in Malibu.

The clinic’s street teams meet patients where they are—beyond the four walls of their brick-and-mortar clinic locations. The medical professionals say they want to remove the barriers that prevent people from getting care. According to the clinic’s website, staff employ a harm reduction approach through assertive engagement, trauma-informed care, and linkage to housing. This work has produced an uptrend in patient health, happiness, and housing stability, King said.

Direct Relief is supporting Venice Family Clinic by providing emergency funding, medications, and critical medical supplies to ensure uninterrupted patient care. In an effort to support those most affected by the wildfires, Direct Relief has awarded $2.6 million in emergency operating grants to 43 organizations, including community health centers, free and charitable clinics, reproductive health organizations, first responders, search and rescue teams, and community-based non-profits.

The post For Unhoused People in Malibu, Wildfires Exacerbate Needs appeared first on Direct Relief.

Medications and supplies shipped this week included rare disease therapies, cancer therapies, insulin, and more.

MPOX Response Continues in Congo

As mpox cases continue to climb in Africa, educational efforts to curb the disease are taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Direct Relief recently awarded a grant of $50,000 to the nonprofit Jericho Road for mpox response, and prevention and treatment programs that are taking place in the three IDP (internally displaced people) camps near their facility in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC.

The Jericho Road Wellness Center is based in Goma, DRC, near three large IDP camps in North Kivu, and the spread of mpox in these camps was noted as an area of concern by Africa CDC. The province of North Kivu is home to over 2.5 million internally displaced people, and conflict and insecurity throughout the region have caused the additional displacement of over 500,000 people in North Kivu over the last year, which has played a factor in the recent mpox outbreak.

Jericho Road held mpox awareness and preventative health training sessions for community facilitators from camps where thousands of displaced people are living. The trainings covered hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, transmission of contagious diseases, and more. The facilitators will be training those in their communities about infection control and protection and prevention.

Direct Relief has worked with Jericho Road during previous outbreaks, including during the 2019 Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC. Direct Relief and Jericho Road worked to deliver PPE to the North Kivu provincial Department of Health, and the organizations are exploring the same approach as North Kivu is experiencing some of the highest rates of mpox in Africa.

Cancer Therapies Arrive in Gaza

Cancer therapies and essential medicines arrived recently at the Cancer Center at European Gaza Hospital to support treatment of people living with cancer.

The cancer center is a vital lifeline to care for those needing care, and seven pallets of requested medications were purchased locally by Anera in the West Bank, with $250,000 in financial support from Direct Relief. The local purchase of the medications allowed for the treatments to be swiftly delivered to the hospital.

Operational Snapshot

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 586 shipments containing 2 million doses of medication during the past month to organizations, including the following:

Around the World

Globally, Direct Relief shipped over 1 million defined daily doses of medication totaling 13,673 lbs., to countries including the following:

YEAR TO DATE

Since January 1, 2024, Direct Relief has delivered 24.2K shipments to 2,419 partner organizations in 54 U.S. states and territories and 89 countries. These shipments contained 396.6M defined daily doses of medication valued at $1.6B (wholesale) and totaled 5.0M lbs.

in the news

Reflecting on 24 Years of Crisis Care at Direct Relief – Santa Barbara Independent

Celebrating the Relief Chief – The Montecito Journal

Direct Relief Secures Spot as the Fifth Largest U.S. Charity, Forbes Reports – Edhat

The post Medical Aid Reaches 16 Countries, 45 U.S. States appeared first on Direct Relief.

Editor’s note: This article is part of a joint editorial initiative between the National Association of Community Health Centers and Direct Relief.

Over the past year, patients who rely on Medicaid have been on a roller coaster of changing rules and requirements. More than 24 million people have been disenrolled from the public insurance program since March of 2023 — often without realizing it had happened — although many later regained their coverage.

Now, a new hurdle is emerging. People who currently have Medicaid have until the end of November to make the case that they should keep it. Documentation is daunting, and many underserved patients don’t know whether they’re eligible at all.

Health centers in the southeastern United States are working to overcome the challenges, helping patients understand the rules and navigate the process so that they don’t lose lifesaving coverage.

They’ve partnered with local governments for media announcements, opened enrollment services to non-health center patients, participated in community events, and made calls or shown up to patient appointments to talk about access to care.

A Shifting Landscape

The story behind the changes is a complicated one.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, allowed continuous Medicaid enrollment for individuals and families. Even if someone wouldn’t be typically be eligible, they were allowed to continue receiving Medicaid coverage, no matter their socioeconomic status.

The end of that provisional coverage and the return of enforced eligibility standards, which began on April 1, 2023, is widely called “unwinding.”

Now, enrolled patients have until the end of November to submit documentation to determine future Medicaid status or find a new solution for healthcare coverage.

Some federally qualified health centers, whose patient bases typically include uninsured, underinsured and Medicaid-supported patients, expect a brunt financial hit as fewer people qualify for the government-funded program. Private practice physicians aren’t required to accept Medicaid patients and health centers receive a Medicaid reimbursement for certain services.

However, health centers say they’ll treat patients whether they are enrolled in Medicaid or not. Their biggest concern is the number of patients, especially those with chronic conditions, who won’t seek out medical care at all because they believe they no longer qualify for coverage.

A “Lag in Information”

In Florida, a state whose legislature has long fought against expanding access to Medicaid, health center staff fear that unwinding has made their patients more unsafe.

Sandra Algarin, outreach and marketing lead at Community Health Centers in Florida, said that without expanded access to Medicaid, patients are more likely to visit hospitals for emergency care, and refuse scheduled follow-ups and general preventative care with general practitioners at health centers because they (incorrectly) believe they can’t afford them.

Direct Relief has provided Community Health Centers in Florida with more than $700,000 in donated medication and medical supplies.

Algarin’s own family has struggled with lack of access to quality care the past year. Her mother, who has dementia, needed additional care. But while their household didn’t have the funds to pay out of pocket, they didn’t qualify for Medicaid support. Instead, Algarin had to bring her mother to work with her for months because hiring a caregiver wasn’t a possibility, she said.

Even in states where Medicaid has expanded, health center staff say it’s not enough.  

“There are absolutely still people who fall through the cracks,” said Ashley Shoemaker, of Louisville, Kentucky. “A lot of these people…are actually eligible, but they don’t know that they’re eligible or, now with the unwinding, they lost coverage. So, a lot of those are our most vulnerable populations.”

Shoemaker is the Director of Outreach and Enrollment at Family Health Centers, Inc. Kentucky expanded Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act with provisions that allow people to access a state health care plan. As of August 2024, about 1.5 million people in Kentucky are covered by Medicaid.

Direct Relief has provided Family Health Centers, Inc. with more than $100,000 in donated medication and medical supplies, ranging from treatments for heart disease and hemophilia to syringes and wound care items.

A certified Connector under the state health care plan, Shoemaker said the state took advantage of expanded access and introduced continuous coverage for children in 2023. However, she explained, people don’t necessarily know whether they qualify for coverage and may avoid making an appointment to see a physician due to a “lag in information.”

Sharing the Message

To keep people informed, FHC did a joint press conference with the Louisville mayor and makes routine appearances at local health fairs and community outings. The health center also offers an extended service: Whether or not someone is a patient there, they can walk in and receive a consultation on how the Medicaid rules apply to them.

Shoemaker said there are a lot of “happy tears,” when patients realize they can afford to visit the doctor: “A lot of people you know, they’re upset at first when they’ve lost their medical coverage…But when they find out that there is still affordable insurance available, it definitely eases some of those concerns.”

In states where Medicaid was expanded during the pandemic, health center employees are trying to find ways to share information with patients.

“The message that really gets through in our state is, ‘More Medicaid for more people,’” said Leslie Wolcott, director of communications at Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center in North Carolina. “What I tried to do is make sure that we are reconveying that message, more Medicaid for more people, [and] not complicating it. And then once people think, ‘Oh, more people qualify,’ then directing them to people that can help them put the application together and help get that [coverage].”

Direct Relief has provided Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center with more than $340,000 in requested medications and with grand funding exceeding $500,000 over the past five years.

North Carolina expanded Medicaid access in December of 2023, a few months after Medicaid unwinding was announced. Wolcott said staff contend with misinformation and “mixed messages” in their efforts to connect patients with health care coverage. The state even conducted market research to determine the best ways to communicate with the public about the issue, Wolcott said.

RCCHC patients can walk into the health center and work with staff on Medicaid forms. The health center uses the same QR code as the state to find Medicaid-related information and has a dedicated phone line for Medicaid questions.  Trained staff are also available at satellite sites to discuss Medicaid, including their school-based program and mobile unit.

Nesita Bishop, Business Office Coordinator at RCCHC, said their initial outreach included making calls to patients at home. She found that patients were closed off and unlikely to listen over a home phone call.

“I started (looking for) patients on our schedule that did not have any coverage and I would just go to that clinic on that day when they come in for their appointment,” said Bishop. “And while they’re waiting, I would just chat with them and get familiar with them. And then they were more willing to come in and talk to me,” she said.

Bishop said it’s difficult to determine whether their Medicaid numbers have increased or decreased as the unwinding period continues. However, she has noticed an uptick in women of childbearing age and single individuals who are looking for coverage.

Preventing “the Churn”

Wolcott said they’ve learned that it’s important to have staff available to work with patients on documents because it can also be an exhausting ordeal.

“It’s income-based and it’s a strange percentage of a person’s income,” she said. “And qualification is different depending on how many people are in their household. It’s all kinds of things so we don’t try to leave it up to the patients to figure out if they qualify or not.”

In the past, patients have experienced burnout contending with the annual application and the obscure financial rules that can disqualify them from the program. Wolcott said that the more patients they can prevent from the unwinding, the more likely patients are to continue preventative care.

“If you think about low-income people, you’re not always in the same job and you’re not always making the exact same amount of money,” she said. “So for Medicaid, when you get kicked off and then you’re back on you just stop trying because it’s such a hassle to get enrolled [with] a doctor again. And so one of the things expansion addresses is the churn, and more people can stay on without getting frequently kicked off.”

The post Medicaid Changes Roiled the Nation. Health Centers Are Smoothing the Path to Care Access. appeared first on Direct Relief.

“When the disaster happened, our Maui partners called us and said, ‘we need you to come,’ and so we brought the mobile clinic here and we were able to provide critical medical care and services,” she said. “That’s the amazing thing about midwives and nurses. We just do whatever it takes, and we adapt.”

The organization’s midwives and nurses were some of the first medical responders to reach the island after the fires and continue to provide care for families.

As the one-year anniversary of the Maui wildfire approaches, this video, produced by Direct Relief, spotlights Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai’i and the vital role it played during the crisis. The organization’s efforts build on its 30 years of dedicated work to improve maternal, child, and family health across the state, ensuring safe pregnancies, reducing cesarean birth rates, decreasing postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, and increasing breastfeeding rates, particularly among high-risk pregnant and birthing individuals, with a particular focus on Native Hawaiians, Indigenous peoples, and COFA migrants.

In the fire’s aftermath, Direct Relief provided Healthy Mothers, Health Babies of Hawai’i $550,000 in emergency operating funds to support the coalition’s critical work.

Direct Relief’s support for the coalition dates back years. Since 2020, Direct Relief has provided the organization with medical aid and support, including grants through its Fund for Health Equity totaling $675,000 to expand mobile services and maternal and child health care into the community.

From the immediate medical care provided by mobile clinics to the long-term support for displaced families, the coalition’s work highlights the indispensable role of midwives and nurses in disaster recovery.

“When you take care of mothers and pregnant and parenting people, you really take care of a whole community,” she said. “The mothers will call you to where you need to be.”

This video was directed, produced, and edited by Oliver Riley-Smith Cinematography.

The post After a Disaster, “the Mothers Will Call You to Where You Need to Be” appeared first on Direct Relief.

The latest 4.5-ton shipment of requested medical aid, including IV fluids, wound care products, personal protective equipment, anti-infective agents, and thermometers, arrived in Gaza on May 26 through the Kerem Shalom crossing between northern Gaza and southern Israel. 

Anera, a key regional partner of Direct Relief, received the supplies, some of which are used by its own mobile medical unit that provides primary care services directly and the remainder being distributed to healthcare professionals in Gaza caring for people in dire need.

This week’s delivery follows a large Direct Relief shipment of prenatal vitamins, breast pumps for nursing, and personal care items such as feminine hygiene products for around 50,000 people in Gaza displaced from their homes. The personal care items were kitted at Direct Relief’s Santa Barbara headquarters by local volunteers over several days.

These supplies, coupled with financial assistance from Direct Relief, have supported a series of Anera-operated mobile clinics throughout Gaza that provide comprehensive services—including primary, maternal, pediatric, and mental health care—to as many as 1,000 people per day in Deir al-Balah and Rafah.

Over the past 8 months, Direct Relief has delivered into Gaza approximately 70 tons of medical aid, valued at more than $26 million (wholesale), including cancer treatment therapies, diabetes medications and supplies, cardiac medications, syringes, sutures and wound care items, water purification tablets, oral rehydration salts, and more.  

Direct Relief, an apolitical, non-sectarian, and nongovernmental humanitarian aid organization, is committed to responding to ongoing health needs and requests for support across the region.

Additional medical essentials have been delivered to and being staged in Jordan, with more en route. Deliveries from Jordan into Gaza will be made as the shifting security and logistics channels permit.

All Direct Relief shipments to Gaza and elsewhere in the region are the result of extensive coordination with various national governments, international agencies, and on-the-ground organizations, and will continue to be delivered in accordance with U.S. sanctions laws and necessary approvals from Israeli, Egyptian, Jordanian, and other relevant authorities. 

The post Direct Relief Delivers Humanitarian Aid into Gaza  appeared first on Direct Relief.

Rafia Rauf, a maternal health leader, heard these and many other stories as part of a qualitative study conducted by the White Ribbon Alliance in Pakistan. The goal was to better understand, on an individual level, how climate change affected women’s pregnancies and birth outcomes. “My pregnancy was the worst experience of my life” due to the heat, one woman told her.

Growing evidence shows clearly that climate change is materially, measurably harmful to pregnant women and babies. Whether it’s a climate-related disaster like a hurricane or flood, or a harmful shift in local environmental conditions, climate change is a destructive force: It increases the risk of intimate partner violence, leads to reproductive complications and even pregnancy loss, and can kill infants exposed to contaminated water.

Midwives have essential roles to play in protecting women and babies — while helping to ensure a more sustainable future. On May 6, during an International Confederation of Midwives webinar, experts discussed the ways in which midwives are “the workforce we need for a warming world.”

World Health Organization Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described midwives in pre-recorded remarks as “first responders” whose work could save 4.3 million lives each year.

During disasters, midwives are often the first responders on the ground. Paulina Ospina, associate director of maternal and child health at Direct Relief, described the way midwives swung into action in August of 2023, when destructive wildfires broke out in Hawai’i. The very first request for medical supplies Direct Relief received was from a local midwifery group, Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai’i, who were moving from Oahu to Maui to care for people displaced or affected by the blazes. And by the time Direct Relief staff were on the ground, the group was already working with the local health department.

“Midwives…are already embedded in the community. They’re representative of the community,” Ospina said. Where health services are frequently disrupted during a disaster, she added, midwives are frequently motivated to continue caring for mothers and babies.

Even as disasters continue to worsen, midwifery offers a sustainable model of care — and a focus on climate adaptation that’s sensitive to cultural and environmental needs.

“Most often, pregnancy and birth do not require grand interventions or technologies,” said Jahan Zuberi, a midwife coordinator at Pakistan’s Indus Health Network. Midwives, who rely on skill, experience, and local and cultural knowledge, “respect the climate that is available to them.”

Moreover, Zuberi explained, excessive outside intervention can separate communities from trust in their own traditional practices and resources. “As we continue to bring midwifery back to the community, we’re going to be promoting practices that are inherently sustainable,” such as the use of effective local herbs, she said.

Maeve O’Connell, a professor of midwifery at the Fatima College of Health Sciences in the United Arab Emirates, offered an important example: breastfeeding. Infant formula is so intensive to produce, she said, that meeting World Health Organization breastfeeding goals would do more to protect the climate than replacing natural gas with renewable gas. “We actually have done the calculations,” she said, referencing a study she conducted with colleagues on this subject.

Moreover, she said, it’s often unsafe to dilute with water – as some formulas require – after a natural disaster, because water can be contaminated by the event.

O’Connell emphasizes that mothers are not to blame for the prevalence of formula feeding. Policy is. Predatory advertising abounds, and the support that many women need to allow them to breastfeed successfully often isn’t available. “It needs to be a collective advocacy,” she said. Midwives can “advocate for policies and practices that support breastfeeding as a sustainable choice for families and the environment.”

That means, in part, giving midwives more room to practice the full scope of their profession. Many midwives, for example, work in labor and delivery wards but aren’t given the opportunity to follow up with families postpartum.

In the wake of a disaster, midwives can ensure that resources are used effectively and meet community and cultural needs. For Zuberi, Pakistan’s 2022 floods are an illuminating example. “There were donations that never got used because that was not the community’s practices,” she said. The menstrual pads were wasted, and menstruating women and girls went without needed resources.

In general, O’Connell said, midwives are uniquely qualified to “harness the evidence” that connects climate change to sexual and reproductive health. The issue is making sure that their voices, and the voices of the people they serve, are heard.

Rauf put it straightforwardly: “Let women be the guide.”

The post Climate Change Hurts Mothers and Babies. Midwives Are on the Frontlines. appeared first on Direct Relief.

The signing ceremony, held in Brunei, was part of the 44th Meeting of the ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management and the 20th Meeting of the Governing Board of the AHA Center, which brought together the heads of the national disaster management agencies of all 10 ASEAN member states.

ASEAN, which stands for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

. ASEAN member countries combined have a population of 640 million people, and these 10 countries sit on or near the “Ring of Fire,” the zone around the Pacific Ocean that is prone to natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Direct Relief CEO and President Thomas Tighe and the Executive Director of the AHA Center, Lee Yam Ming, signed the memorandum of intent, which renews the longstanding strategic partnership between the two organizations, first signed in 2016.

“The partnership between the AHA Center and Direct Relief will bolster the facility’s response capacity in the ASEAN region,” said Lee Yam Ming, Executive Director of the AHA Center. “Through this partnership, we continuously expand and broaden our collaboration in preparedness, response, and recovery initiatives. The AHA Center is looking forward to working together with Direct Relief in realizing ASEAN as a disaster-resilient region.”

“Because of the region’s risk exposure to natural disasters, including some of the most intense earthquakes and tsunamis on record, Direct Relief stands ready to respond in coordination with the AHA Center at a moment’s notice,” said Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief CEO and President. “Today’s event signifies Direct Relief’s commitment to building on the past eight years of cooperation with the AHA Center, as well as a vision of future support in the region to help those most impacted by disasters and crises.”

Since 2008, Direct Relief has delivered more than $387 million in medical materials across ASEAN member states. Since the 2016 signing, Direct Relief has also provided $1.187 million in grant funding for the procurement and prepositioning of emergency supplies, for the reconstruction of health infrastructure, for capacity building, for AHA regional training, and for various other AHA-led programs.

In addition to regular donations of medicines and medical supplies, Direct Relief has mobilized and launched major organizational responses to disasters in the region, including the Indian Ocean Tsunami (Indonesia, 2004), Cyclone Nargis (Myanmar, 2008), Typhoon Haiyan (The Philippines, 2013), Sulawesi and Lombok earthquakes (Indonesia, 2018) and Covid-19 pandemic response throughout Southeast Asia.

Direct Relief and the AHA Center have also coordinated emergency preparedness efforts, including the pre-positioning of emergency medical supplies at ASEAN disaster supply warehouses in Malaysia and the Philippines, joint participation in emergency response exercises and policy dialogues, funding for AHA-led initiatives, information sharing, data analysis, mapping, and collaboration during large-scale emergency response operations in Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos.

The post Direct Relief Renews Commitment to ASEAN Region, Building on Strength of Past Partnership appeared first on Direct Relief.

The shipments contained 3.3 million defined daily doses of medication and supplies, including cancer therapies, rare disease treatments, prenatal vitamins, field medic packs for triage care, and more.

Dr. Edna Adan Ismail Visits Direct Relief HQ

Dr. Edna Adan Ismail, former first lady of Somalia, 2023 Templeton Prize winner, and esteemed nurse-midwife, visited Direct Relief this week to meet with staff and speak to an audience about her work to improve the health and lives of women at Edna Adan University Hospital, in Hargeisa, Somaliland.

Adan was trained as a nurse and midwife in the United Kingdom and has worked for decades in Somaliland as an activist and health provider to end female circumcision and increase maternal access to health care.

Located in Adan’s hometown of Hargeisa, the Edna Adan University and Hospital has significantly reduced maternal mortality for women in the region, and the nonprofit charity hospital and training facility provides health services and education to the next generation of midwives. Since 2008, Direct Relief has supported the hospital with $6 million worth of medical aid, including equipment specifically to outfit trained midwives. Direct Relief’s Midwife Kits contain essential items needed to facilitate safe delivery.

Ismail toured Direct Relief’s 150,000 sq. ft. warehouse, met with staff about maternal health efforts in the region, and then spoke to the public about her vision of creating a sanctuary of care and learning.

Read More

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The “Cruel Beast” of Covid-19: A Q&A with Edna Adan

The women’s health advocate and former Somaliland foreign minister weighs in on maternal care during Covid-19, the disease’s unknowns, and humanitarian responsibility.

MATERNAL HEALTH

What a Difference a Person Can Make: A Conversation with Edna Adan

Edna Adan has made helping mothers and babies the mission of her life, and does so in her homeland of Somaliland, where the need is great. 

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Celebrating Midwives Around the World

Midwives are the first line of assistance, providing high-quality care during routine deliveries and managing basic complications. But midwives can only do their work if they have the right tools.

U.S. Wildfire Season Preparation

With the start of the U.S. wildfire season on the horizon, Direct Relief working to support healthcare providers located in historically impacted regions ahead of time. The organization recently shipped field medic packs to partners in Northern California, including Worldwide Healing Hands and Sacramento Medical Reserve Corps.

Designed with input from emergency physicians and public health officials, each pack contains supplies and equipment to meet a variety of prevalent disaster-related medical issues, including infection control, diagnostics, trauma care, and personal protection tools.

Direct Relief supports safety net providers and others responding to wildfires by providing medical aid, as well as emergency funding, funding and infrastructure for resilient power, and provides analysis for governments and first responders to help make informed decisions.

Learn more about Direct Relief’s wildfire response here.

Direct Relief Documentary Admitted to Global Film Festival

Direct Relief’s documentary, co-produced with BBC StoryWorks, ‘The Invisible Impact of Wildfires,’ was selected for admission to the Fifth ‘Health for All’ Film Festival hosted by the World Health Organization.

‘Invisible Impacts of Wildfires’ is part of a series called “The Climate and Us” by BBC StoryWorks and the Global Climate and Health Alliance. The series goes around the world exploring how the climate crisis is a health crisis while highlighting innovative healthcare solutions being used to help respond.

Watch the documentary here.

operational Snapshot

WORLDWIDE

Included in this week’s global shipments was a delivery of seven pallets of requested medical supplies and medications that departed Direct Relief’s Santa Barbara warehouse this week bound for Honduras. The shipment will be distributed to Fundación Ruth Paz, Clínica Esperanza, and Hospital Loma de Luz. (Video by Maeve Ozimec/Direct Relief)

Over the last week, Direct Relief shipped more than 1.8 million defined daily doses of medication outside the U.S.

Countries that received medical aid over the past week included:

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 527 shipments containing almost four tons of medications during the past seven days to organizations, including the following:

YEAR TO DATE

Since January 1, 2024, Direct Relief has delivered 7,140 shipments to 1,523 partner organizations in 54 U.S. states and territories and 62 countries.

These shipments contained 108.5 million defined daily doses of medication totaling 2.3 million lbs.

In the News

Viatris Announces Product Donations To Direct Relief of More Than 7 Million Doses of Medicine To Support Access to Medicine and Healthcare – Morning Star

Plan A Health Hits the Road for Patients in Mississippi Delta – Angels in Medicine

Pacific Pride Foundation Hosts 11th Annual PROUD Prom in Collaboration with ILRC – The Santa Barbara Independent

The post Dr. Edna Adan Ismail, Globally Renowned Nurse-Midwife, Visits Direct Relief appeared first on Direct Relief.

While the last two years provided a sharp increase in employment, report findings share that the country has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels—especially in skilled nursing. The nation’s aging population will require more healthcare services, and while inflation has affected the economy, healthcare has historically been a safe choice for employees.

To thwart further turnover and increase job opportunities, health centers and free clinics are approaching workforce development by building career pathways and encouraging career literacy. These federally and privately funded institutions have advocated for programs that teach, train, and mentor the incoming and current healthcare workforce to support the nation’s safety net population.

In Florida, a state that has not elected to expand Medicaid, health centers serve 1.7 million patients. According to the National Association of Health Centers, the organizations created over 25,000 jobs in 2021. Steven Bennett, Director of Workforce Development Programs at the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, said the position with the highest turnover rate within Florida health centers is the entry-level position of medical assistant, followed by dental assistant.

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FACHC surveys the 54 health centers across the state every six months to learn and analyze the workforce. The latest survey, which dates to December of 2023, reported an increase in the number of unique open positions. Including medical interpreters, which are necessary given nearly 25% of health center patients do not speak English as their first language.

“I think we now sort of see what happens when the house is on fire, and we don’t have all the things in place,” Bennett said.

Community Health Center of Florida, Inc., or CHI, operates nine health center sites and 35 school-based sites for patients in Florida’s 28th congressional district. The district was created after the 2020 census results showed an uptick in the rural area’s population. Over half of the district’s census respondents identified as two or more races, and the majority of respondents identified as a minority race.

Peter Wood, Vice President for Planning and Government Affairs at CHI, said the health center has a commitment to strengthening the overall primary care sector, specifically by serving underserved communities. Patients within the communities that CHI serves are more likely to be adversely and disproportionately affected by the social determinants of health and have a higher rate of chronic conditions.

Given CHI’s commitment to the community, the health center operates a teaching program that encourages providers to take on additional educational opportunities and to use their new skills in the same location. The teaching center is the first of its kind, nationally, and includes residency programs in family medicine and psychiatry. CHI is developing the program to include a dentistry residency and an internal medicine residency program.

“A higher percentage of them would end up taking jobs and staying in those areas, as opposed to working in a hospital and then finding another job that was not serving the underserved neighborhoods or areas of the country,” said Wood.

While medical staff at any workplace must adhere to specific guidelines and educational criteria, Bennett says there are “foundational similarities, but different types of competencies,” among health center and private practice employees. They require a highly qualified workforce that is also representative of the community they serve. Health center staff are more likely to work with patients who may not have insurance, have insurance through Medicaid, do not speak English as a first language, and may not trust or have had prior experience with providers, making them less trusting of the medical process.

“It’s the whole gambit of human complexity that arrives at our front doors, and we have to staff and build a workforce that is able to not only deal with healthcare challenges but able to manage and articulate responses to those complexities as well,” Bennett said.

While recruiting a qualified workforce is important, Bennett says it’s equally important to retain current employees. The director said health centers must take a holistic approach in their efforts and consider what career pathways look like in the long term. He encourages career literacy so that potential and current employees can better understand their career options and suggests that every employee has, at minimum, a two-year plan for their career and mentoring support. He also suggests that health centers have partnerships with local organizations, faith-based centers and schools to engage more people.

Several health centers and free clinics throughout Florida have partnered with MAVEN Project, a national nonprofit that supports primary care providers, for its mentoring program. Retired physicians volunteer to mentor current providers on clinical and or leadership skills in a trusted environment.

“I was like, ‘please, sign me up’,” said Hillary Glenn, doctor of nursing practice and co-founder of Point Washington Medical Clinic in Florida.

Glenn began working with MAVEN Project pre-pandemic and requested a mentor during the height of Covid. She said there was mixed messaging throughout the state regarding the pandemic, and she wanted to confer with another medical professional. She participated in the organization’s weekly Covid update and had bi-weekly calls with her mentor to make sure that she was up-to-date on best practices and that her organization was providing the most accurate medical advice.

“It helped me a lot professionally and to guide the organization in the right direction and (to) do things that were best practice,” Glenn said.

Glenn said that it can be difficult, especially in rural and or underserved parts of the country, to find specialists who will see patients from health centers and free clinics. She said that with the Maven Project, that access is less difficult. She called the mentor program “brilliant” and “an incredible resource for the charitable sector.”

Dr. Lo-Ann Nguyen, is a volunteer mentor for MAVEN Project and finds value in the “thought partnership” it provides to current health center employees. Like Bennett, she says medical professionals must consider the full trajectory of their careers. Nguyen has worked with a physician at a health center in Florida to support their leadership capacity and their long-term career goals for the past year.

Nguyen said that the physician expressed feeling burnt out and they have worked together on how to delegate tasks and rejuvenate their enthusiasm for their work. Nguyen said it’s common for providers to experience exhaustion. She said that she reminds her mentees of their “why” so that they think about their career trajectory and are less likely to quit.

“If you have that basic value of why you went into medicine, why you spend so many years studying and training, what is it that drew you here?” she said. “And so, how do you find joy in the work?”

Both Bennett and Nguyen emphasized the need for recognition on the job. Nguyen said providers need to know that they can be leaders within the organization and that, as leaders, they should express gratitude and create a culture of positive feedback.

“Make your staff feel empowered, feel valued, and they tend to stick with you,” she said. “They will help you more, and they’ll take better care of your patients for you. So, it’s all Win-Win all around.”

One misconception about health center employment is low salary.

“Meeting market rates for compensation is essential for not only building and retaining staff but for delivering the quality care that patients deserve,” Bennett said.

According to FACHC salary reports, most health center staff earn more than the statewide average if they work the same role at a different medical practice. However, it’s not true for every role. Bennett says that’s why having career pathways is important—it prevents employees from quitting every other year for similar roles with slightly higher pay.

“The truth is, no one’s going to retire rich working at a community health center,” Bennett said. “But the good thing is, no one comes to a community health center to get rich, right? You go into your career at one of these centers because of something deep, the mission and servant of heart.”

Direct Relief has supported health workforce development and training, including through the MAVEN Project, which connects community providers with mentorship and expertise.

The post Florida Health Centers, Free Clinics Find New Ways to Train, and Retain, Health Workers appeared first on Direct Relief.

The Maui wildfires inflicted widespread devastation on the Maui community, underscoring the critical need for comprehensive healthcare services in the aftermath of such disasters. Acknowledging the pivotal role Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center plays in the community, Direct Relief’s historic grant aims to empower the health center to provide essential healthcare resources, support immediate medical needs, and enhance overall capacity to serve the affected community.

Recognized for its commitment to transparency, efficiency, and accountability, Direct Relief provides targeted assistance to communities in need, regardless of politics, religion, or ability to pay. Direct Relief has been a steadfast supporter of Community Health Centers across the United States, demonstrating a strong commitment to improving healthcare access for underserved populations. Identifying the crucial role that Community Health Centers play in providing comprehensive and affordable healthcare, Direct Relief has collaborated extensively with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) to amplify their impact.

“NACHC is deeply appreciative of the generous grant to Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center,” said Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, President and CEO of NACHC. “The human toll and tragedy that Lahaina residents experienced from the wildfires will take a long recovery. The funding will allow Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center to rebuild infrastructure, provide essential services to the community and help affected island residents heal. Community Health Centers, such as Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center, reach beyond the walls of the exam room to address island health disparities that include higher rates of chronic disease and premature death from environmental factors, including natural disasters. We are grateful for our longstanding partnership and collaboration with Direct Relief to support Community Health Centers as they carry out their mission as the first and last frontline responders to disasters and devastation.”

Through its work with NACHC, Direct Relief aims to address the unique challenges faced by Community Health Centers, ensuring they have the necessary resources to deliver quality healthcare services. This collaboration includes targeted assistance, such as medical donations, financial support, and logistical assistance, tailored to meet the health center’s specific needs.

Direct Relief’s support extends beyond individual grants, with the organization actively engaging with NACHC to advocate for policies that strengthen the Community Health Center model and enhance its ability to serve vulnerable communities. By fostering these strategic collaborations, Direct Relief aims to bolster resilience and effectiveness nationwide.

The organization’s commitment to Community Health Centers aligns with its broader mission to improve health outcomes for individuals affected by poverty and emergencies. Direct Relief recognizes the critical role played by Community Health Centers in delivering healthcare services to those who need it most and remains dedicated to supporting and enhancing their capacity to make a lasting impact on community health.

“This investment underscores our commitment to supporting Community Health Centers and their indispensable role in delivering healthcare to those who need it most, especially during times of crisis,” stated Thomas Tighe, Direct Relief CEO. “Direct Relief is privileged to support the work being done by Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center, as they continue to serve the community of Maui following the devasting fires in August of last year.”

As a Community Health Center, Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center plays a vital role in delivering accessible and quality healthcare services to underserved populations. The grant from Direct Relief is intended to facilitate Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center’s recovery efforts, including the restoration of facilities, provision of medical supplies, and reinforcement of the healthcare infrastructure required to meet the evolving needs of the community. The funding will further amplify the health center’s ability to address the specific challenges faced by vulnerable communities affected by the island’s wildfires.

“We are incredibly grateful for the generous $1 million grant from Direct Relief, which comes at a pivotal moment as we continue our work to address the immediate and long-term needs of our community,” said Cassie Savell, Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center COO and Deputy CEO. “This substantial contribution will allow us to significantly enhance and expand our support and services, ensuring those affected by the fires receive the care and resources they need during this challenging time. Together, with Direct Relief’s support, we are committed to rebuilding and healing our community, demonstrating the power of collaboration and compassion following the Lahaina fire devastation.”

The post Direct Relief Awards $1 Million Grant to Maui Community Health Center for Wildfire Recovery appeared first on Direct Relief.

In Colorado, a federally qualified health center has provided access to healthcare and quality housing for decades. Now, the health center’s Fort Lyon location is celebrating a decade of successful substance use recovery, too.

The Denver-based health center, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, began offering healthcare services to those experiencing homelessness 40 years ago. The founders realized that housing was a critical part of maintaining overall health needs and began purchasing property so patients could have a place to call home.

Now, the Coalition owns over 2,000 affordable, supportive housing units for individuals and families and has repurposed a Veterans Hospital-turned-correctional facility for those with substance use disorders to live while in recovery.

Health, housing, and flexibility are the secrets to the program’s success. According to Fort Lyon, over 40% of their participants exited the program and moved into permanent housing. When transitional, long-term care was included, 58% of participants moved into permanent housing. Last year, 93% of participants said they were satisfied with their experience at Fort Lyon.

“It’s amazing what can be done here,” said Vincent Orzweiler, a current participant in the Fort Lyon program. The 62-year-old said he has struggled with alcohol dependency for 30 years. He’s tried other recovery programs in the past but said many are expensive and only allow participants to stay in recovery over strict timelines.

November marked 19 months at Fort Lyon for Orzweiler, who says he has taken a deep dive into his mental and behavioral health to better understand the reasons he consumes alcohol.

“Mentally, it’s about filling a void, the spiritual intersection of addiction,” he said. “There are mental problems that we all go through, and there are reasons that we became addicts.”

Before moving to Fort Lyon, Orzweiler had a new job and said that life was going well.

“I thought I could go back and maybe use a little here and there because my life was better,” he said. “But that addiction took control again, and I ended up losing almost everything again.”

Frustrated, his friends and family encouraged Orzweiler to seek out social services. He completed an application and was referred to Fort Lyon.

No Place for Isolation

There are few rules at Fort Lyon, other than joining at least one of the many recovery groups on site. Isolation is not an option, and enrolled participants are at Fort Lyon because they want to be there.

The program can accept up to 225 applicants at a time through referrals from social services across the state. The program is free to participants, at a cost of $18,800 per person per year for the state. Participants can stay at the facility for up to three years while working on their mental and behavioral health needs. The participants are predominantly male, at 80%. About 68% of participants are from counties outside of Denver, and most participants are between the ages of 45 and 54.

Fort Lyon is located in Colorado’s Bent County, a rural area with less than 6,000 residents and the program has been home to over 2,200 people in the past decade. Patients have access to the on-site health clinic, can choose from dozens of workgroups to participate in, go to school to gain certifications and become employed to begin rebuilding their lives. They are housed across three dormitories and 10 single-family homes across the campus.

That community has been key to Orzweiler’s recovery. He said that he is prioritizing his mental health and has learned that he needs a supportive network around him. When he leaves, he’ll return home and plans to find a therapist to continue working on his mental and behavioral health needs.

“I had to change a lot of behaviors, and it’s not just the using part,” he said. “It’s the things that I would say made me a better human being. A better citizen…Why did I cheat? Why did I steal? Why do I lie? It’s all part of the addiction, and those issues have to be addressed.”

Orzweiler said that he and many others felt “beaten down” by life tolls when they arrived to the facility. After months of therapy, he says he can’t overstate how important the mental health side of his recovery has been at Fort Lyon.

Patients expressing their own desire for recovery is also why Fort Lyon has been successful, said Lisa Trigilio, operations director. Trigilio has worked at Fort Lyon since its inception as a recovery facility. She said the “loose program” doesn’t have a lot of requirements, thus increasing the chance for patient success.

“For me, it’s the phenomenal amount of people that you meet,” she said about why she enjoys working at Fort Lyon. “We have so many wonderful people that come through here, and it just excites me to see when people are changing.”

Participants can choose whether their recovery is faith-based, medically assisted, involves group therapy, or a myriad of other options. They’re allowed to leave campus to explore the town, often to eat and find local employment. Fort Lyon is also not a closed facility—those seeking help for substance use disorders are welcome to join the on-site group discussions.

Trigilio said many have arrived at Fort Lyon feeling “very broken” and that they leave feeling “excited about life again.”

“You can’t find that anywhere else that I know of,” she said.

Fort Lyon’s health center is a satellite center to the Denver location. A physician is available two days a week, as well as a licensed professional counselor and a psychiatric nurse practitioner. They offer in-person and telehealth options. The medical services are free for participants through the state’s Medicaid program. All staff are trained to administer Naloxone, and if comfortable, carry it with them while at work.

“Taking a comprehensive history is important. Many of the patients I work with not only have addiction but also mental health concerns, co-occurring disorders,” Vickie Lucero, an on-site behavioral health provider, told Direct Relief in an email.

Lucero said that she asks patients about previous trauma, treatments and outcomes. Lucero teaches healthy boundaries, and talks to her patients about how to communicate and prioritize self-care. Many arrive at Fort Lyon with unaddressed medical issues, which can affect their overall treatment plan.

“Addressing addiction requires addressing the whole person,” Lucero wrote. “Trauma, pain, grief, education, employment (and more). They all impact how an individual copes with the challenges of life. At FLHC, we work to address all those things with care and compassion, taking care of the whole person.”

Direct Relief has supported the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless with medical aid and financial support, including a $100,000 emergency operating grant to continue work during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The post “It’s Amazing What Can Be Done Here.” Colorado Health Center Offers Community for Those in Recovery appeared first on Direct Relief.

Direct Relief’s medicine and supplies reach individuals in medically underserved communities across the United States primarily through thousands of non-profit, local health clinics. These clinics form the key strands of the nation’s healthcare safety net.

The donations include more than $1 billion in medicine and supplies donated to community health centers (Federally Qualified Health Centers or FQHCs) providing primary care to 31.5 million – one in 11 – Americans in medically underserved communities. Direct Relief partners with more than 1,000 of these FQHCs, with an average partnership length of nine years.

The donations also include more than $1 billion in medical aid to free and charitable clinics and pharmacies, which are often volunteer-driven and offer care to people with few other options. These clinics served 1.7 million patients in the United States in 2022, 93% of them without any form of public or private health insurance.

“Direct Relief is a huge part of how we provide medication access to our patients, particularly insulin,” said Megan Doerr, Vice President, Strategy & Operations at CommunityHealth, a free clinic in Chicago. “Medication access and adherence is crucial to overall health, and being able to offer patients medications for free is invaluable. It seems almost too good to be true for individuals that hear about our services that they’re going to be able to manage their chronic diseases free of charge and not have to choose between filling their medications and paying rent or getting food.”

Direct Relief’s extensive U.S. medical aid program incorporates individual initiatives, including resilient power for health clinics, high-volume donations of insulin and the opioid overdose-reversing drug naloxone, women’s health programs like the provision of IUDs for uninsured patients at no cost, funding of mobile healthcare clinics to reach people without local transportation, and much more.

The domestic program includes continuing support during normal times and rapid response to natural disasters. Direct Relief has invested heavily in building capacity to provide medical aid to communities hit by hurricanes and wildfires, as well as public health crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the opioid overdose epidemic.

In addition to the more than $2 billion in donated medicine and medical supplies, Direct Relief has made $186 million in cash grants since 2004 to nonprofit healthcare providers. The grants support projects for disaster preparedness, health equity initiatives, and resilient power, and include donor-funded awards for community health innovations.

Direct Relief has reached this milestone as more Americans than ever rely on these safety net providers, with the FQHC patient population growing 30% between 2015 and 2022. Yet funding is volatile, with government shutdown threats this fall making it harder for FQHCs to commit to making hires amid a nationwide shortage of clinical staff.

In 2022 FQHCs received 43% of their revenue from Medicaid, the jointly funded state and federal healthcare program for people with limited financial resources. But more than 10.6 million people have been disenrolled from Medicaid this year through Nov. 14 as pandemic-era funding dried up.

Amy Simmons Farber, associate vice president at the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), recalls Direct Relief’s role in helping health centers remain in operation at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. “The early days of the pandemic were an extraordinary time in which community health centers mobilized and in a matter of days transformed their clinical practice. With a scarcity of resources, health centers launched testing sites, converted their facilities, transitioned to virtual visits, and diverted nonacute Covid cases from overwhelmed hospitals. Direct Relief came through with a critically needed solution, donating PPE and medicines and dollars, and that was amazingly helpful to these health centers in keeping their doors open.”

“Direct Relief is a true champion and friend of free and charitable clinics,” said Nicole Lamoureux, President & CEO of the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics (NAFC). “We often say free and charitable clinics feel like the healthcare world’s best-kept secret, but Direct Relief’s consistent commitment and support make us feel seen, known, and appreciated. We would not be able to support our members like we do without Direct Relief.”

Ongoing Programs

Among the many ongoing U.S. programs are:

• ReplenishRx, a streamlined option for pharmaceutical companies to donate their products, via safety net clinics, to people without health insurance or other means to pay for them. The program reduces administrative burdens and the risk of patients losing access.

• Donor-funded innovation awards provide flexible funding to safety net providers for new and expanded programs that best meet community needs. In all, $18 million has been awarded to health centers, free and charitable clinics, and women’s health centers through support from AmerisourceBergen, Baxter, Bayer, BD, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Teva.

• Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity, which provides flexible philanthropic funds that enable health centers to focus on high-value efforts that are not easily funded from existing revenue streams. The Fund has awarded $43.7 million in grants.

• Power for Health – Without power, critical health services can’t be provided – lifesaving medicines go bad, electronic health records can’t be accessed, essential medical equipment can’t be powered, and vital community health facilities serving the most vulnerable shut down. This initiative brings clean, renewable backup power to community health centers and free clinics to ensure they can deliver critical healthcare services during power outages.

AccessHealth, an FQHC serving two counties west of Houston, uses a mobile clinic the size of a large bus to bring care to its patients. With the mobile clinic, donated by Direct Relief, AccessHealth holds back-to-school health fairs each August serving about 2,000 families, providing the immunizations their children need to attend school, along with health screenings, eye exams and dental screenings.

About half the patients it serves lack any form of health insurance. In 2023 through November, Texas kicked 1.4 million people – 64% of all enrollees – off its Medicaid program, the highest number and largest proportion of any state, according to KFF.

“The funding Direct Relief has given us for the mobile health unit allows us to work in rural communities, both on the medical and dental side,” said Mike Dotson, CEO of AccessHealth. “The need for transportation highly affects the folks that we see, so being able to use that resource is a big win for us, and it helps our patients in a really, really positive way.”

Disaster Response

In addition to its decades-long work internationally, Direct Relief has responded to dozens of major natural disasters in the U.S. since ramping up its domestic programs nearly 20 years ago.

Climate change is driving more frequent and far more destructive hurricanes and wildfires, uprooting people from their homes and cutting them off from their healthcare providers and medicine supplies. Research has shown that in disasters like 2017’s Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico, more people have died from interrupted access to healthcare than from physical injury. People living with medication-dependent chronic conditions like type 1 diabetes and hypertensive diseases are at particular risk.

Drawing on its long experience responding to natural disasters, Direct Relief assembles, stocks and prepositions caches of the medicines and medical supplies most commonly needed by people in the wake of a disaster, including trauma supplies, antibiotics and wound care supplies, as well as medications for diabetes, hypertension, and respiratory, psychological and gastrointestinal ailments.

Direct Relief provides the supplies both in Emergency Medical Backpacks, which can be quickly flown to disaster scenes and given to medical responders, and in Hurricane Prep Packs (HPPs), which are large caches prepositioned in hurricane-prone areas. Packed into each HPP are 220 types of medicine and medical supplies designed to provide enough medical supplies to care for 100 people for 72 hours. Ahead of the 2023 hurricane season, Direct Relief pre-positioned emergency medical supplies in every southeastern and Gulf Coast U.S. state from Virginia to Texas, as well as throughout the Caribbean and Central America.

As with its ongoing domestic programs, Direct Relief’s U.S. disaster response is delivered primarily through its health center and free clinic partners. Health center and clinic patients tend to be more medically vulnerable due to factors such as longstanding societal barriers, lower incomes, and less wealth, and these factors magnify the impact of emergencies. The health centers’ and clinics’ deep experience and earned trust within communities and among their patients, and their keen familiarity with the particular health risks that existed prior to an emergency, are essential to engage and support when an emergency occurs.

A Domestic Program Born in Crisis Response

From its founding in 1948 until the mid-2000s, Direct Relief worked almost exclusively outside the United States. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans, displacing 1 million people and cutting them off from essential medicine supplies. This was a turning point for Direct Relief, spurring the organization to obtain pharmaceutical distribution licenses nationwide. In 2009 it became the first charity with licenses to distribute pharmaceuticals in all 50 states. Today, the vast majority of Direct Relief’s support for community health is provided for ongoing needs that aren’t tied to specific disasters.

The post Direct Relief’s Medical Donations for U.S. Health Safety Net Surpass $2 Billion appeared first on Direct Relief.

At this time, Hiba, who asked that her last name not be used for safety reasons, was working as a midwife at Al-Rafah Specialized Hospital in Jindires, a town in northwest Syria. She was also eight months pregnant with her first child.

Hiba, fortunately, wasn’t hurt in the earthquake, and she gave birth to her baby without complications a month later in March. She now brings him to work at the hospital, where a private attendant watches him between Hiba’s breastfeeding breaks. But the trauma from the earthquake lingers on.

“Every day I come to the hospital, and I feel like maybe it’s the last day in my life,” Hiba shared with Direct Relief through a translator. “When I feel anything that reminds me of the earthquake, any tremor and anything else around me that makes it feel like there’s an earthquake again, I take my baby and go outside the building because the building is cracked and affected by the earthquake.”

New Trauma Added to War and the Pandemic

Hiba is one of around 500 midwives in northwest Syria who face tremendous challenges in their work and personal lives amidst the overlapping crises of the last few years—including not only the February earthquake but also war and Covid-19.

Syria’s protracted civil war has lasted over a decade, and more than 12 million people (half of Syria’s pre-war population) are refugees abroad or are internally displaced, and over 2 million people are living in Syrian tent camps with limited access to basic services.

The health needs here are immense, and almost all healthcare services for the 4.6 million civilians in northwest Syria are provided for by a patchwork of NGOs and UN humanitarian assistance, which makes health funding gaps inevitable.

Health facilities have also been actively targeted. Dr. Okba Doghim, a physician and the programs director at Syria Relief and Development, an NGO based in Syria and Turkey that Direct Relief has supported since 2018, said that many people, like Hiba, are afraid to enter hospitals due to the risk of an airstrike combined with infrastructure damage from the earthquake.

Medical staff also often choose to relocate away from risk, and the remaining personnel cannot meet the present health needs. This has translated to a decrease in the quality of care in safer areas as the health system’s capacity there has not been able to scale with the population growth caused by people fleeing danger. “And we already had a staff shortage after Covid-19,” said Dr. Doghim.

“If She Will Not Die, I Will Not Go to the Health Facility”

Women of reproductive age are especially vulnerable to inadequate healthcare, particularly in the more than 1,400 camps for internally displaced people, or IDPs, in the northwest of the country. 80 percent of IDPs are women and children, and although 40 percent of the population lives in camps, only 18 percent of all health facilities are in camp settings. Because of these gaps, it is particularly critical to know what to do and where to go in a health crisis, but unfortunately, many don’t have this knowledge.

“The conflict interrupted education about sexual reproductive health, as well as regular information about the need for sexual reproductive health services,” said Dr. Doghim. “And there is no public transportation. In some communities, they prevent women and girls from going to the services without being accompanied by a man.”

And male accompaniment is not always a given. Dr. Doghim and his team recently visited an IDP camp, and he asked a resident, “When your wife is pregnant, what do you do? Do you go to antenatal care?” He said, “If she does not die, I will not take her to the healthcare facility; it’s 35 kilometers from here.” Gas is scarce and costly, making it a significant factor in this decision.

Also, there are no family planning services offered in that camp. “Almost 100% of those girls are married under 18,” he said. “All those women, they cannot go to toilets at night because they are at risk of violence and rape. They take showers inside their tents—they use clothes to cover the place where they shower. So there’s a lot of risk for gender-based violence in that camp. And all the families depend on women to work in the field. They work all day to get almost 25 Turkish Lira, which cannot do anything because it’s less than $1 for the family.”

Midwives Provide Support, but They Also Need It

Hiba shared that most of the pregnant women coming to the hospital live in an IDP camp. Implementing medical advice there is difficult due to unmanageable temperatures, lack of proper food and lack of privacy for applying medication. The number of C-sections has doubled, which Hiba attributes to the stress of the war and earthquake. “Before the earthquake, there were typically four C-sections a day, but now it is usually seven or eight,” she said.

Hiba’s hospital, even though there’s been a rise in pregnancies and risks involved, does not have the resources to hire more midwives, and the current staff is overloaded. For example, just one midwife assists with the labor and delivery process on any given day.

“We at least want another midwife to stay with the doctor in the clinic so I can then go work with the midwife who is working in the labor room,” she said. “It is a tiring process and very hard for just one midwife.”

There is a parallel shortage of nurses, which also ends up affecting the midwives. Because it is common in Syrian culture for a man to refuse to let a male nurse assist his wife in any way, a female nurse is often called upon to assist the male nurse, and she asks for the midwife’s assistance if there is more than one emergency case.

Unsteady Access to Medicines

Medicines and medical staff are in short supply, and this issue is often exacerbated by the current system for allowing aid into the country.

Every six months since 2014, the UN Security Council must reauthorize the humanitarian border crossing from Turkey into Syria. The border crossing reauthorization negotiation most recently lasted from July 10 to September 20, causing a gap of over two months in supplies and UN funding for the NGOs that run health facilities in Syria.

And the flow of supplies often halts before the border crossing renewal times out. For instance, Dr. Doghim shared, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) sends family planning supplies for the first quarter (three months) after reauthorization, and then in the few months leading up to the next reauthorization there is often another interruption as the parties begin to discuss the agreement and its renewal is again in limbo. According to Dr. Doghim, the effects on medical material supply have been detrimental.

“Since the earthquake in February, there was no distribution of reproductive health kits, and many health facilities complain of supply shortages, including some critical items like oxytocin, which is given after each delivery to prevent postpartum hemorrhage.”

Fortunately, Direct Relief has recently been able to send 35 midwife kits to Syria Relief and Development during this most recent UN supplies lapse. Each kit contains the 61 essential items a midwife needs to perform 50 facility-based safe births.

“These are the best kits we receive,” Hiba said. “The contents are all there, like the scales and other delivery tools. And especially in the cases of emergency delivery attempts, everything is there, and we don’t have to buy any additional items to be prepared.”

A Sign of Hope, and a New Challenge

Despite all the challenges for families in northwest Syria, Hiba and her colleagues have seen a sign of hope: a significant increase in the number of women who want to have more children.

“Many women lost one, two, or three children [in the earthquake], and now they are coming to the hospital pregnant or trying to get pregnant, even though in many cases they are over 40 years old. This is a risk for them,” Hiba said. “And this is a new thing for us [the hospital staff]. These women didn’t want to become pregnant anymore before the earthquake, but now they are hoping to become pregnant to compensate for the loss.”

“Also, before the earthquake, when women were asked to return to the hospital for a follow-up appointment during their pregnancy, they mostly were not coming. But now, after the earthquake, most of them are committed to come and sign up for additional appointments to help implement what advice they were given,” Hiba said. “They are even now more cheerful about themselves and their children.”

“Those who live in the camps find difficulties in applying medical advice, but now they want to.”

Since 2010, Direct Relief has supported Syria Relief and Development with more than $28.2 million in medical and financial support, including for midwifery.

The post Mothers & Midwives Hope for New Life in Northwest Syria appeared first on Direct Relief.

This Saturday, over a dozen providers, nonprofits, associations and the Hawai’i Department of Health will gather at Whalers Village to host a community health fair. Participants will have access to Covid-19 and flu vaccines, health screenings, conversations with physicians, food and games. The event prioritizes Lahaina residents and evacuees who lost their homes to the wildfires and now reside within the resorts in the area; however, all are welcome.

“The idea was to bring the healthcare to them,” said Dr. Cassandra Simonson. She is a local pediatrician and member of the Hawai’i Academy of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who will be present at the health fair.

Simonson also provides care to Medicaid patients at Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center, which is a sponsor for the event. The pediatrician said health professionals in the area want to find ways to make residents feel special during this difficult time. They’ve even hired non-medical professionals to participate in the event to support the local economy. Live music will be featured, and culturally significant ukeleles, many of which were lost to the fires, have been donated to give away.

The Maui fires spread for days and 99 people died. Hundreds more were unaccounted for in the first few days of the natural disaster. The Lahaina community saw the most damage. Many have lost their jobs as the fires decimated the area’s tourism industry, and there is an ongoing housing shortage since many structures were destroyed.

Simonson said while not everyone lost their home, many still feel like they are “still running from the fire” because there is no sense of normalcy. The physician said the constant unknown of the situation affects the population’s mental health.

“It’s very hard on people’s mental health to not be able to prepare their own meals and especially for kiddos who don’t feel safe because you always feel like you’re still running from the fire,” she said. “If you don’t have a normal sense of your surroundings, you’re still in fight or flight mode even if you’re in a shelter or a hotel, it doesn’t feel stable, and it doesn’t feel normal.”

Donations of food and clothing have helped, but community members say they still need more. Some households have taken in other families. Some children have not returned to school. Mentally, many endured shock at the initial situation and are now under constant stress, which can increase health risks.

Jacquelyn Ingram, of Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, said that some students are being bussed from one side of the island to the other to go to school while others are being homeschooled. Some parents are still figuring out educational options. But missing school can prevent some children from receiving immunizations and mental health supports they would traditionally have at school.

HMHB will also participate in the upcoming health fair. Ingram said the drop in educational enrollment is doubly concerning, given the educational disruption so many saw during the height of Covid.

Ingram said that health fair hosts hope that the community event will help people realize that they are not enduring this difficult situation alone and that many are working together to find solutions. HMHB has used its mobile unit to visit rural areas and care for people where they are since the fires were exhausted. She said providing daily necessities and ensuring residents are hydrated and clothed has been key.

Direct Relief is supporting the health fair with donated vaccines, including protection against Covid-19, influenza, RSV, and pneumococcal infections such as pneumonia. Supplies and equipment are also being provided, including needles and syringes, gloves, alcohol swabs, diluent, portable refrigerators, ultra-low temperatures freezers and temperature monitoring devices for vaccine storage.

The post Maui Health Fair Aims to Reach Residents Recovering from Fires appeared first on Direct Relief.

The second round of funding to the clinics in Florida, New Jersey, and California underscores the commitment by Teva and its partners to expand access to mental health resources. The grants will support further expansion of the clinics’ innovative behavioral health services that are tailored to meet the cultural and language needs of patients in their local communities, including screening and services focused on trauma-informed care, training, continued community outreach and partnership development, new delivery sites, and continued trust-building among their patients and communities.

“Teva’s continued support for mental health across the U.S. builds on the past year’s success, connecting even more patients with quality care,” said Thomas Tighe, CEO and President of Direct Relief. “Over the past year, free clinics serving the most vulnerable patients were able to use these resources as a force multiplier for good. Direct Relief is privileged to work with these clinics, the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, and Teva, on this initiative that is again helping so many.”

“We know that a third of adults in the U.S. show symptoms of anxiety, depression or both – and more than 5.5 million adults with a mental illness are uninsured,” said Sven Dethlefs, PhD, Executive Vice President, North America Commercial at Teva. “Through this partnership, we are able to help address the rising need for community-based mental health care for uninsured and underserved populations.”

Nicole Lamoureux, President and CEO of NAFC said, “It is imperative that we continue to prioritize investment into mental health and behavioral programs. The funding from Community Routes provides these indispensable and trailblazing clinics with the momentum they need to create and expand mental health programs that can address the needs of their local communities.”

By the Numbers

Through the Community Routes: Access to Mental Health Care program, Teva is providing funds and a broad portfolio of generic medicines to help advance health equity and quality care for underserved populations experiencing depression and anxiety. Within the program’s first six months, the 11 grant recipients reached over 22,000 patients within underserved communities, supporting individuals already facing other challenges, including food insecurity, low literacy, homelessness, and disabilities.

Program impact includes the facilitation of more than 7,300 anxiety, depression and adverse childhood experiences, or ACE screenings, over 400 staff/volunteer and community member trainings, and nearly 20 community events across New Jersey, California, and Florida.

“Without the grant funding, there would be no access to therapy services. In a post-Covid world, there has never been more need for mental health services, both therapy and medication. We are making a difference because of the grant,” said Greg Speed, Counselor at Cape Volunteers in Medicine in Cape May Court House, New Jersey.

Visit TevaUSA.com to learn more about the Community Routes program, including a video highlighting the many voices behind the grassroots-focused program.

The 2023 grantee clinic recipients to receive continued funding through Community Routes are outlined below with an overview of their recent focus and impact made in their local communities to-date.

FLORIDA

• University of Florida Mobile Outreach in Gainesville, Florida – Create and disseminate evidence-informed, easily accessible mental health wellness curriculum and training to underserved populations via trusted community members through a mobile outreach model.
• Grace Medical Home in Orlando, Florida – Expand an existing program that proactively identifies trauma and offers individualized interventions through an integrated, whole-person, multi-disciplinary approach to improve health outcomes.
• • Talbot House Ministries of Lakeland, Inc., in Lakeland, Florida – Support medication reconciliation services provided through the pharmacy, outreach and event coordination, and outreach to homeless encampments to connect with clinical services and referrals for mental health care, patient transportation, and education.

NEW JERSEY

• Cape Volunteers in Medicine in Cape May Court House, New Jersey – Improve mental and behavioral health access and treatment among at-risk populations by expanding depression and anxiety screenings. Funding also supports community events and outreach to identify community members’ mental and physical needs.
• Bergen Volunteer Medical Initiative, Inc., in Hackensack, New Jersey – Increase capacity and fill a much-needed gap in care for Spanish-speaking patients with depression and anxiety through the support of a bilingual mental health practitioner and telehealth services to help reduce stigma and barriers to care.
• Parker Family Health Center in Red Bank, New Jersey – Support a collaboration with the Mental Health Association of Monmouth County, which allows for a bilingual therapist to offer weekly counseling and the creation of mental health education to be shared at live community events, virtually and digitally.

CALIFORNIA

• Samaritan House in San Mateo, California – Support implementation of best practices in treating depression, anxiety, and trauma, as well as working with geriatric and immigrant populations. The creation of a student-led trainee program to expand group and individual services and the adoption of psychoeducational books, in native languages, to help promote awareness and reduce stigma.

• Symba Center in Apple Valley, California – Expand partnership with local behavioral health services organization to remove barriers and support successful, trauma-informed, mental and behavioral health care at a homeless shelter site.
• Westminster Free Clinic in Thousand Oaks, California – Offer a range of culturally and linguistically competent mental health services, including individual and peer support, and a training program that empowers parents to identify the early signs of mental health issues.
• Lestonnac Free Clinic in Orange, California – Establish protocols and formalize behavioral health program under a Behavioral Health Program Manager to provide care through a trauma-informed lens and create a mentorship program for behavioral health interns from local colleges and universities.
• Savie Health in Lompoc, California – Create a screening protocol for social determinants of health, depression, and anxiety and provide culturally sensitive resources and referrals to help patients overcome barriers to mental health care.

The post More Support for Mental Health Care Reaches Clinics in California, Florida, and New Jersey appeared first on Direct Relief.

However, with Israel’s announcement today permitting humanitarian aid to flow from Egypt into Gaza, Direct Relief is actively working to resume medical aid shipments in coordination with global agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and in accordance with U.S. sanctions and Israeli authorities’ approval.

Moreover, Direct Relief continues to support its longstanding regional partners, including Anera, an international nonprofit registered in both the U.S. and Israel, which has a long record of providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Direct Relief has nine medical aid consignments prepared and ready to ship via air from its medical distribution facility to Gaza and the West Bank, which Anera requested prior to the terror attack last week by Hamas. Packed with essential medications, including chronic disease drugs, these shipments were placed on hold, pending confirmation of their proper storage, safe transit, and pre-arranged clearances with Israeli and other relevant authorities.

Direct Relief has also approved a $100K emergency grant to help Anera evacuate its Gaza staff and support their ongoing efforts to assist civilians in Gaza amid a pressing and rapidly unfolding humanitarian situation.

This follows Direct Relief’s commitment of $1 million in financial assistance to Israel in response to last week’s terror attack by Hamas.

The following five Israeli organizations will each receive a $200K grant for their efforts to serve Israel’s diverse population:

• Joint Distribution Committee (JDC): A century-old establishment, JDC is known for its global disaster responses. It aims to support hospitals in Israel to deal with the ongoing crisis.
• Magen David Adom (MDA): Founded in 1930, MDA serves as Israel’s principal organization for disaster relief, blood services, and ambulance transportation.
• NATAL: With over two decades in trauma treatment, NATAL provides invaluable support to those affected by traumatic incidents.
• United Hatzalah: Israel’s largest volunteer organization, United Hatzalah, offers quick emergency medical services nationwide. 
• ZAKA: Recognized by the UN, ZAKA Search and Rescue provides swift assistance during mass casualty situations globally and has paramedics ready throughout Israel.

The post Emergency Update: Humanitarian Response to Israel-Hamas War  appeared first on Direct Relief.

The post Photo Essay: Searching for a New Life After the Long Journey North appeared first on Direct Relief.

NEW YORK — Alejandra Jimenez, 27, her husband, and young daughter stayed in their hometown of Barquisimeto, Venezuela, for as long as they could.

Jimenez’s daughter, Nicole, 9, has cerebral palsy, with microcephaly and epilepsy, which require ongoing care, something that the city, and nation, could no longer provide, with its deteriorating economic, security, and healthcare situations, including hospitals without potable water or consistent electricity, lack of medicines to manage convulsions and unreliable transportation options. Jimenez had to find a better solution for Nicole.

“I am, and will always be, in the place where I can give good care to my daughter,” Jimenez said. “[Nicole] has her particular condition, but I know she is happy. I try everything to make her feel happy,” she said through a translator during a series of interviews with Direct Relief last month. Throughout the interviews and reporting, she was inseparable from her daughter, constantly cuddling and kissing her.

The family moved to a border town next to Colombia, which allowed medical visits there. But after some time, the crisis in Venezuela reached them there, too, and they were pushed to move into Colombia. They experienced a degree of respite there, but Jimenez wanted to give her daughter a fuller life, one that would only be possible with surgery to relieve the symptoms.

“I have to achieve that surgery. I have to achieve that dream,” Jimenez recalled repeating to herself when they had few opportunities to make that dream come true.

It was ultimately this commitment to Nicole that catalyzed the family to make an epic journey north to the United States, with an eye towards New York City, where Jimenez’s sister lives and where she believed she had the best chance to get the surgery for her daughter.

Safety net clinics adapt to care for migrants

Jimenez is one of over 541,000 people to be allowed into the U.S. under new policies enacted by the Biden administration. About 100,000 migrants arrived in New York City from spring 2022 to August 2023.

“No one could anticipate that we were going to get over 100,000 asylum seekers in a year at the beginning of this humanitarian catastrophe,” said Daniel Pichinson, executive director of Ryan Health’s Chelsea-Clinton clinic. Ryan Health is a federally qualified health center, part of a national safety net clinic system that provides care for everyone who requests it regardless of their ability to pay. “We reached out to the mayor’s office, catholic charities, and shelter providers in the area to offer our services because we suspected individuals would need health care,” Pichinson said, estimating that Ryan Health has onboarded about 3,000 migrants in the past year.

“Step by step, I can do it by myself. This is a country of opportunities, and I will find one of those opportunities people talk about.”

– Alejandra Jimenez

The crisis catalyzed changes at Ryan Health, which saw 47,950 patients last year across its clinics, community outreach centers in homeless shelters, and schools.

“We are very fortunate to have a very dedicated staff, but they’re tired, post-Covid, post-everything the past few years. Imagine if a dozen people walked into your doctor’s office; what would they do? Turn them away. We can’t. So we did some triaging and then gave them appointments to come back,” Pichinson said. Beyond administrative issues, the clinic was also forced to reexamine some of its basic assumptions regarding patient care.

“Some people thought taking blood and seeing a nurse is the whole thing. They didn’t understand they still have to get the results and see the doctor,” he said, noting that some patients at the clinic had never been in a doctor’s office before.

“No records, no vaccinations, you go from point zero. You need to do a full medical exam before integrating them into U.S. society,” said Dr. Christian Olivo, an infectious and tropical disease specialist originally from Venezuela, who has been on staff at Ryan Health since November.

Olivo pointed out that migrants in the past received a checkup and certain medicines before entering the U.S. This is also the reason that Olivo and his team had to create a new screening protocol to check for certain parasites and diseases that are common in the Darien Gap, an area of jungle in the Panama-Colombia border region known for its difficult terrain and lawlessness. Chagas, which can lead to heart failure, and leishmaniasis, which can lead to skin sores and organ failure, are two examples Olivo gave.

Adding to the challenge of understanding new patients’ medical history, Olivo has also found that many patients who believe they have been vaccinated against certain conditions, in fact, have no antibodies. The reason, he said, is the frequent power outages in some South American countries, notably Venezuela, lead to certain vaccines rising above the temperature needed to keep them effective.

Olivo noted that the most effective care is given when the provider speaks the same language as the patient and understands or at least is familiar with their culture and experiences.

“Imagine using an interpreter to ask about sexual assault. It’s not an easy question to ask through a third person, so that’s a barrier to the care of these patients. Sometimes providers don’t really understand what these patients have suffered,” he said.

A Long and dangerous journey north

Jimenez’s more than 2,000-mile journey to the U.S. began in Ipiales, which sits on Colombia’s southern border with Ecuador, and ended in Brownsville, Texas. The route she, like hundreds of thousands of other migrants, took through Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico to the United States is highly fraught.

“98, 99% of patients experience extortion by police, local thugs, and organized crime along the way, especially in the Darien gap, by Guatemalan police and in Mexico, it’s with a mix of cartels and immigration police. Also, in Mexico, you have kidnapping, slavery, and sexual assault for both males and females,” Olivo said, based on what his patients have shared with him. He is also conducting a study of 500 migrants related to tuberculosis.

Other dangers are present on La Bestia, a freight train that runs from southern to northern Mexico. Extreme weather faces passengers, who must endure temperatures that can reach 90 degrees during the day and drop below freezing at night. When the train stops, bandits will jump on the train, sometimes robbing and kidnapping migrants. Olivo said sometimes they will escape, “but it’s not because of the police.”

“Knowing you can be kidnapped, killed, raped, your level of desperation has to be high enough to decide to cross this. To me, it’s super impressive,” Olivo said about people who make this journey.

Jimenez said she and her partner, the father of her youngest son, were aware of what they could face. But within a few days of making the decision, they began their journey on April 17: Alejandra, her partner, Nicole, her three-year-old son, and her 20-year-old nephew.

Upon reaching the Darien gap, she encountered a “dense maze of mountains as beautiful as they were lethal.”

“My biggest fear was to go out of that place without any of my kids alive,” she said, sharing the story of another family who had all died after falling into a ravine. She took turns with her husband carrying the small children.

Early on in the jungle, they began to run out of food. Luckily, they met a local man who, after looking at Nicole’s condition, agreed to help them cross through a shorter and less dangerous but usually more expensive route. With that godsend, Jimenez and her family emerged from the jungle, though she contracted diarrhea and a fever.

the last leg

Jimenez continued through Central America with Nicole in a baby carrier, which presented physical difficulties but was somewhat mitigated by an ever-present sense of solidarity. They traveled via a mix of walking and buses. In Mexico, Jimenez said she and her family passed through quickly and without incident.

On May 9, they arrived in Matamoros, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, across the Rio Bravo from Brownsville, Texas. Exhausted and facing a river that was deeper than expected, Jimenez gave Nicole to her nephew to carry across.

She remembers seeing his feet go deep into the muddy bottom as a strong flow of water pushed against him. Most people were struggling to advance. Alejandra was panicking but determined, as were all the people, screaming and rushing to the other side.

When they made it across, they turned themselves in to U.S. border authorities and were detained. Nicole was vomiting and had a fever, but no care was rendered to her, something Jimenez said could have been due to the large group size they were in. Still, it shocked her that law enforcement ignored her daughter’s condition. They were then taken to a detention center for three days before being released and taken to a shelter in McAllen, where conditions were “very bad,” according to Jimenez. They were forced to sleep on the ground with little protection from the elements.

A new city and New mantra

After a couple of days, Jimenez’s sister managed to buy plane tickets to fly them to New York City, where she lives. Upon arriving, the family was assigned to a shelter in the Bronx. While the family reunion was joyous, it soon became clear that Nicole would need emergency care to treat her ongoing high fever. Shelter workers took Nicole to a local hospital and helped with the paperwork. Since then, Nicole has been treated by a neurologist, pediatrician, and orthopedist. She and her daughter also receive ongoing care at a local Ryan Health clinic. While surgery remains an option for Nicole, Jimenez said none of the doctors she met with recommended it for now.

In early August, outside the Roosevelt Hotel in New York’s Midtown neighborhood, one of the world’s most expensive locations for real estate and just two blocks away from the famed Rockefeller Center, migrants – mostly young and middle-aged men as well as families – walked in and out of the once landmark hotel, which was guarded by a mix of private security, NYPD officers, and National Guardsmen. A U.S. Marine, unarmed, was seen helping on-site staff with logistics. Next to the former hotel, a café was selling lattes for $6.

People staying at the former hotel said they came from Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, Senegal, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Pakistan. People shared different focuses for the day. Some were focused on getting school supplies for their kids. Others were signing up for cell phone service, Medicaid, or a job with a delivery service—good work since it was flexible, paid daily, and required little knowledge of English. Another linking factor was New York City pizza, which was by far the lunch of choice.

Near the cell phone sign-up kiosk, Eddingson Vera, a Venezuelan national who crossed the border into El Paso last December, was waiting with his moped and chatting it up with some friends. He said he spent some time in San Antonio before arriving in New York.

“The work of delivery, even if unstable in some ways, has been paying well,” Vera said. “I’m happy my kids are going to school and that my wife is in good health.” She had been pregnant and ill around the time when they crossed.

“I’m thinking about developing my own business for street food,” Vera said.

Charter buses, some with out-of-state license plates, and vans routinely pulled up to the hotel. Asked where they were going, some migrants said they were going to different shelters. Some said they chose to go to a different city. Others said they did not know where they were going. Many had just arrived and were visiting the hotel to get registered and have a place to stay assigned.

After a couple of months in New York, Jimenez is still trying to find her work path while caring for her children. Her family is around, ready to help, but they live in different parts of the city. As she visits the doctors, the migration offices, and her relatives, she has a new mantra, which she repeats to herself.

“Step by step, I can do it by myself. This is a country of opportunities, and I will find one of those opportunities people talk about.”

Photos and translations provided by Oscar Castillo.

Direct Relief has supported medical facilities in Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, and Mexico, through which many migrants travel, as well as Ryan Health in New York City.

The post Jungle, Thieves, and Worse: A Mom’s Epic Journey To Save Her Daughter appeared first on Direct Relief.

“It’s already hard to recruit people to work in rural areas, and it doesn’t instill confidence to have to ask Congress to remember us every few years,” said Leslie Wolcott, director of communications at Roanoke Chowan Community Health Center in North Carolina.

“Big picture, between cost-of-living increases, inflation, and the cost of doing business, retention is a huge issue, just being able to pay competitive wages. How do you sustain that?” said Adam Friedman, chief marketing officer at the Saban Clinic.

Federally Qualified Health Centers, which care for tens of millions of people in the U.S. annually at a fraction of the cost of hospitals, are set to lose their main source of federal grant funding after September 30 unless Congress manages to break its deadlock on the issue. This healthcare network, started during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, has enjoyed bi-partisan support through the years, including a notable expansion during George W. Bush’s time in office, when funding for FQHCs doubled, leading to patient number increases of 60%. Currently, there are more than 14,000 FQHC sites, also called community health centers, across the U.S.

While health center leaders do not expect the funding to be withheld, ambiguity regarding the final amount of funding is already leading to negative impacts in terms of recruiting and weakening trust among community members, according to Wolcott and Friedman.

“The uncertainty about funding just adds another layer of challenge, an additional headwind,” said Joe Dunn, vice president of the public policy and research division at NACHC.

Data from NACHC showed that in 2022, Medicaid provided 43% of revenue to FQHCs, Section 330 Federal Grants provided 12%, private third-party payers provided 12%, Medicare provided 9%, and the rest was paid by a combination of other grants, federal and not, as well as directly from patients and other sources. NACHC states the average cost of an FQHC visit is $322 compared to an average emergency room visit, which is $2,600 according to data from health insurance company UnitedHealthcare.

So far this year, more than 5.5 million Americans have been disenrolled from Medicaid. This could also impact health centers, as some people might not know they can still seek care at community health centers. However, these centers will likely face challenges with reimbursements for such uninsured visits, particularly if federal grants are not expanded and approved. Medicaid is the largest revenue source for FQHCs nationally, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers, an advocacy organization for community health centers.

“The role that health centers play in the health of the whole country is critical, so when you hear these kinds of things happening [funding cliffs], it’s concerning,” Friedman said. “It’s certainly concerning when you’re in the trenches of the health care system that we have and when you’ve been providing equal access to care for over 55 years, and you know the need is strong,” he said.

Friedman noted that the federal grant uncertainty comes at a particularly inopportune time, as behavioral health visitors increased by 50% in 2022, which will rise this year, and some of the local safety net programs, including at the county-level, do not cover behavioral health, forcing Saban to seek private donors to fill in the funding gaps.

Lenna Poulatian, Saban’s director of development, said that while past funding helped pay for a pediatric behavioral health specialist – pediatric visits have tripled since 2020 – future donations are at-risk due to the ongoing Hollywood strikes and broader economic uncertainty. Saban’s supporters include major Hollywood studios and networks as well as non-entertainment foundations and private donors.

In North Carolina, Wolcott said the timing comes RCCHC just broke ground on a new dental clinic. A hospital in their area, Martin General Hospital, recently closed, which will have ripple effects when it comes to primary health care access in the area, Wolcott said.

“Rural healthcare is really precarious,” she said. “When hospitals close, it messes up the primary healthcare system, and then it falls on FQHCs,” Wolcott said.

Further adding to the strain, many critical programs offered by RCCHC are not fully reimbursed, forcing the clinic to shore them up with additional funding from additional grants. These programs include mobile clinics for farmworkers, eye exams for diabetics, and colorectal screenings.

“We are providing care with not enough resources. And with every potential finding cliff, we have to lay out our core services to see what we would have to cut. Staffers hear this, and word gets around town,” Wolcott said, adding that, although no services have been curtailed, it reduces trust among the community.

“News spreads fast in a small town,” she said.

In LA, Friedman said Saban Clinic remains resilient and plans to continue to provide all services they currently offer, even with the uncertainty.

“We want to keep doing the work that we do, and we hope they (Congress) would see the value we provide,” he said.

The post Federal Funding Deadlock Costs Safety Net Clinics appeared first on Direct Relief.

It’s one the Aaron E. Henry Community Health Center is asking about to help their patients more holistically. It’s also the goal of the center’s Health Wealth program to address financial insecurity and its direct impact on health.

The federally qualified health center is located in Clarksdale, Mississippi, and has served the community for over 40 years. The center operates 12 sites and provides medical and dental care services, behavioral health services and more. The center began the Health Wealth program after gathering input from people across six counties to hear about obstacles to health outcomes in the community. Addressing all barriers to better health, including financial ones, was listed as a need.

So clinic staff and staff from Southern Bancorp worked to modify the clinic’s social determinants of health patient screening tool by adding questions about banking status, debt burden, and other indicators of financial distress. If patients say they’re interested, they can meet with a credit counselor on-site at the clinic.

Aaron E. Henry received $100,000 from Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity, via the AbbVie Foundation, to launch the program with the goal that it serves patients across the Mississippi Delta, and could be replicated in health centers across the U.S.

The post Supporting Physical and Financial Health in Mississippi appeared first on Direct Relief.

The Tampa Bay area, home to more than 3.2 million people, is under a hurricane warning as Hurricane Idalia continues its path toward Florida, and is expected to be a Category 3 storm when it makes landfall. “Catastrophic” storm surges along coastal areas are predicted to reach up to 15 feet above ground level, according to the National Weather Service, which characterized the storm as being “unprecedented for this part of the state.” Twelve counties have mandatory evacuation orders, and Tampa International Airport has been closed. Several Tampa Bay hospitals have been evacuated as well.

Already Florida’s Gulf Coast, from Naples to Tampa, is experiencing a water level of up to two feet above normal during today’s high tide. Images taken midday in Indian Rocks Beach, a community on a barrier island west of Tampa, showed flooding.

As the storm approaches, safety-net health centers in the expected impact area are making preparations to ensure that operations continue as soon as possible in the wake of the hurricane.

Serving Patients, Before and After the Storm

“Federally qualified health centers are committed to being accessible, and we’re making sure we do all we can to accommodate that,” said Dr. Ashley McPhie, chief medical officer at Tampa Family Health Centers.

McPhie said her FQHC has taken action on several fronts to ensure operations continue with as little disruption as possible after the storm. This includes ensuring patients have the medicines they need in case of power outages, structural damage, or transportation-related issues prevent them from obtaining refills.

Tampa Family Health Centers has a centralized prescription fulfillment system, which enables them to track which patients may be running low on their medicines. Incorporating these data points, the team has been moving medicines out of areas most likely to bear the worst of the storm to ensure they don’t get damaged and can be picked up by patients at another location while also delivering medicines to patients who are unable or face challenges to pick up refills in person. Florida regulations during emergencies allow for patients to get automatic refills.

TFHC has had to close its clinics in mandatory evacuation areas but has been making sure critical appointments are still kept at their open locations. McPhie said that keeping appointments is important since it helps build trust among patients that the clinic is always there for them.

“During this time, technology can be up and down, but we’re going to be available. They (patients) know exactly where to go,” she said.

McPhie said her clinic was able to implement these emergency response measures due to planning that has been refined over the almost 40 years TFHC has been operating in the Tampa area. A key component of this is their hurricane preparation meeting consisting of representatives across all clinic departments, including IT, nursing, pharmacy, and more, where responsibilities are delegated and coordinated.

Additionally, following all hurricanes that threaten their region, whether or not they directly hit Tampa, TFHC has a debriefing where leaders from each department can review how they performed and what could have been done better. TFHC provided care to 113,418 patients last year and saw 312,058 visits across its 18 locations. They reported a 202% return on investment for each dollar invested in TFHC.

For McPhie, the stakes of disaster response are personal: she received such care following Hurricane Katrina.

“I know what it’s like to be a patient needing something after a hurricane,” she said. “I evacuated and came back to nothing.” McPhie was in New Orleans for college after Katrina hit and spent time living in a FEMA trailer. The experience both informs and drives her motivation to ensure there is as little interruption to care as possible for those in the community she serves.

Storm May Impact Vulnerable People More Intensely

Andrew Schroeder, Direct Relief’s VP of Research and Analysis, said that the current trajectory of the storm has it going over an area that TFHC serves and which is home to a demographic that “has relatively high rates of users of power-dependent medical devices” as well as an area that has a “reasonably high elderly population (20-23%). The storm is also expected to hit an area with a “very low density of health infrastructure, usually no more than 2-3 facilities total per county with large travel distances likely subject to flooding disruptions.”

“Each of these counties along the coast has 15,000-30,000 residents, but could see significant problems just given the infrastructural geography,” Schroeder wrote based on his analysis of demographic data compiled by CrisisReady today.

Most deaths related to hurricanes occur after the storm and disproportionately impact vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, people with chronic conditions, and people with lower incomes.

McPhie said she remains confident as Hurricane Idalia approaches and plans to reopen all clinics by noon local time tomorrow.

We feel prepared. The team is really laser-focused… I have that apprehension the night before something happens, but we’re ready… we’re here, we’re standing up, we’re ready for the community,” she said.

Direct Relief has shipped more than $158 million to health centers, free clinics and community organizations in Florida, including Tampa Family Health Center, since 2009, and has responded to multiple hurricanes in Florida, including Hurricane Ian in Sept. 2022. The organization is ready to respond to medical needs from Hurricane Idalia as they become known.

The post Safety-Net Health Centers Stand Up to Idalia appeared first on Direct Relief.

Thousands are relying on evacuation shelters across the island, and medical and social workers like Ingram are working with first responders and other volunteers to ensure residents have access to care and necessities in the aftermath of the deadliest wildfires in the U.S. over the past century.

The women of Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai’i (HMHB) and the nonprofit’s partners have arrived at the site of the wildfire by jet ski, boat, and car to help those in need. Direct Relief has funded the group with a $50,000 emergency operating grant and has also shipped requested medicines to the group.

Three wildfires sparked on Aug. 8, scorching Maui’s Lahaina community, and the death toll has exceeded 100 people. However, officials say that number will likely grow over the next few days.

Ingram and her colleagues set up a medical hub through the nonprofit’s solar-powered medical unit. Their team has visited several aid sites since Friday morning to support people who have evacuated their homes or need medical assistance. The program director said that power is out in several places, and volunteers have relied on text messages to communicate, given the inconsistent broadband service.

HMHB works to improve access to maternal and child health. They support residents statewide, mostly through social service programs around tobacco cessation, providing safe sleep measures through cribs, food distributions, mental health services, and hosting community doula trainings.

Over the last few days, HMHB visited several women who had recently given birth and needed supplies for one-week-old babies. Ingram told Direct Relief that residents had requested birth control, pregnancy tests, manual breast pumps, and diapers, among other items. They reinforce therapeutic communication to lessen the amount of trauma to survivors of the fires and work with an emergency room physician and a registered behavioral health nurse.

There was a lack of access to prenatal and obstetric care before the wildfires began, with Maui’s only private obstetrics practice planning to end services this Fall and focus on gynecology as a cost-saving measure. According to the local station Hawai’i News Now, residents who don’t have Kaiser insurance and who are in need of prenatal care will visit a federally qualified health center, Malama I Ke Ola Health Center, which Direct Relief is also supporting with an emergency operating grant of $50,000 and essential medicines.

While most have left the more severe areas of the fire, Ingram said there are many long-term effects that residents will face moving forward. Many have endured smoke inhalation and extreme heat; others will be forced to find alternative housing and leave their families or communities of support.

“Imagine what it’s like to go through that experience,” Ingram said. “But what I think we can do is to utilize our critical skills and strong partnerships to really try and get assistance to people right away. And I want people to know that it’s available to them whether it’s prescription medications, doing prenatal care, or post-partum care.”

Direct Relief has provided Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawai’i a $50,000 emergency operating grant to support their operations as they respond to the wildfires in Maui. Direct Relief has also provided them with emergency medical backpacks for triage care, and fulfilled requests for essential medications. The organization also received $475,000 in funding from Direct Relief’s Fund for Health Equity.

The post After the Fires, Providing Community Care in Maui appeared first on Direct Relief.

On Wednesday, emergency shipments containing emergency medical backpacks for triage care departed for Maui, Oahu, and the Big Island. Respiratory medications, N-95 masks, and chronic disease management medications also departed from Direct Relief’s California warehouse for the islands.

The organization has opened up its $360 million (wholesale) medical inventory in California for emergency response and will fulfill medical requests.

Medical shipments are on the way to local organizations, including Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii, a group responding to needs, including those of pregnant women, newborns, and their families that have been displaced or impacted by the fires.

A shipment for the group departed Wednesday and included emergency medical backpacks, for triage care outside of clinic walls, and a wildfire response kit, specifically built with medical essentials commonly requested during wildfires, which includes respiratory medications and PPE.

More than 300 personal care kits, with hygiene items, including soap and toothpaste, for people displaced due to evacuation, have also been sent.

Shipments will continue this week, and Direct Relief is in contact with the Hawaii Department of Health, the Federal Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response (ASPR) Region 9, the Hawaii Primary Care Association, and more than 15 other healthcare facilities in Hawaii in response to the recent outbreak of wildfires.

In addition to acute medical issues such as burns and smoke inhalation, wildfires can also prompt mass evacuations, creating further health risks. When people are suddenly displaced from their homes, they may leave without critical medications to manage chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. If unmanaged, these conditions can escalate, leaving the person requiring emergency care at a time when urgent care centers and emergency rooms are already inundated.

Fires can also create massive power outages (about 13,000 service addresses are currently without power on Maui, according to poweroutage.us), leaving large amounts of people without electricity, which can be deadly for those dependent on medical devices, including ventilators and medical oxygen.

Direct Relief will continue to respond to medical needs as requested.

The post Critical Aid Dispatched for Wildfire First Responders in Maui appeared first on Direct Relief.

DETROIT — Southeast Michigan may be known for cold and snowy days, but 70% of Metro Detroit residents are experiencing hotter temperatures due to environmental factors.

Climate Central, a national nonprofit, recently released data on 44 major U.S. cities that have “urban heat islands,” or areas where temperatures are amplified. The data shows census-level tracts across the country that are at least eight degrees warmer than local temperatures.

The nonprofit reported that 41 million people nationwide are within urban heat islands and are at a higher risk of suffering from heat-related illnesses. These areas are warmed by a lack of green spaces, too many tall buildings that block airflow, a heavy population density, and an abundance of surfaces that are more prone to absorb heat, like dark roofs and paved roads.

About 4.8 million people live in the seven counties of southeast Michigan. Many of the cities and towns were built along grids that now amplify heat through distinct rows of homes and buildings. Detroit made history when the historic Woodward Avenue became the first paved road in America. However, the 27-mile-long street is now lined with buildings that draw in heat and warm the metro area.

According to Climate Central, Metro Detroit is one of nine metro areas where over 1 million people are affected by the increased temperatures.

Kaitlyn Trudeau, a senior research associate at Climate Central, said the summer’s extreme temperatures and the amplified heat can create dangerous health situations. The researcher said that development in high-density areas exacerbates climate change and acts as a “multiplier” for increased temperatures. She also said that cities built on grid systems, like those in southeast Michigan, are more likely to “trap in heat” due to lack of airflow.

Trudeau said that increasing access to green spaces and using innovative building materials will prevent temperatures from rising across urban areas.

Health Impacts of Heat

People with chronic conditions, children, older adults, and people who spend prolonged periods of time outdoors are most at risk of a heat-related illness. The three main heat-related illnesses include heat cramps, heat stroke and heat exhaustion.

Just over 8,700 southeast Michigan residents live within the parameters of Community Health and Social Services, or CHASS. Though the health center is located in southwest Detroit, the health center serves residents in areas that include Taylor, Allen Park, Lincoln Park and Ecorse, all of which have urban heat islands.

About 13% of residents within the health center’s coverage area are 65 and older, and 46% of residents are considered low-income.

Dr. Felix Valbuena, CEO of Community Health and Social Services in southwest Detroit, said a mixture of heat and poor air quality is a cause for concern. The already industrial area was blanketed with smoke earlier this summer from wildfires in Canada.

“When we talk about climate issues, we’ve been dealing with the new bridge that they’re building behind (our location), and so there’s been a lot of issues with air quality, and the wildfires in Canada that are coming down,” he said. “So people are having lung issues, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and have been ending up in the emergency room, and we’re bringing them in for a follow-up, or they’re calling in and saying, ‘I’m having trouble breathing.’”

Of the patients seen at the center, 264 have been diagnosed with asthma, 157 have chronic lower respiratory diseases, 988 are overweight or considered obese, over 1,300 have diabetes, and over 1,900 have hypertension.

The air and heat are a concern, and Valbuena says that they warn patients to be aware of symptoms of heat-related illnesses like dizziness, fatigue, high blood pressure, and experiences of exhaustion while doing normal activity.

He also cautioned against using alcohol during extreme temperatures and said that alcohol already encourages dehydration. Valbuena shared that those who drink alcohol in the heat are more likely to experience diarrhea and vomiting. Those who take medications to manage chronic conditions should also be mindful since they may be less likely to sweat but are still overheated.

As extreme temperatures soar across the U.S., Direct Relief is focused on supporting health centers across the country, with medical support and with backup power options through its Power for Health program, which aims to install resilient power systems so health center operations can continue during outages.

The post “Urban Heat Islands” Across U.S. Put Certain Neighborhoods At Heightened Risk appeared first on Direct Relief.

The shipments contained five million defined daily doses of medication, including first aid kits, vitamins, PPE, antibiotics, and more.

Aid En Route to Asylum Seekers in U.S.

On Tuesday, Direct Relief received an urgent request for medical aid from Jericho Road Community Health Center based in Buffalo, New York, as their team began to see a large influx of asylum seekers in Buffalo. Their staff shared that “New York City is presently overwhelmed with asylum seekers who are being bused [there] from the Texas/Mexico border.

New York City is now busing some of these folks to other cities like Buffalo. In Buffalo, Jericho Road is leading the effort to resettle these folks. We presently are helping about 700 asylum seekers here in Buffalo at our VIVE shelter, three hotels, a college dorm, and several shelters.” They also expect about 1,000 more refugees to arrive in the coming days.

Jericho Road specifically requested over-the-counter products like personal hygiene products and cough medications, along with some basic medications. Direct Relief then let the staff select items from available inventory, which resulted in a 4-pallet shipment of emergency family hygiene kits, emergency medical backpacks, multivitamins for kids, bandages, and antifungal medication, among other items. The donation is scheduled to arrive at their center in Buffalo early next week.

Jericho Road Community Health Center (JRCHC) was originally started in 2007 as a private family medical practice and specializes in primary medical care services to Buffalo, New York’s underserved, predominantly refugees and other low-income members of the community. In addition, JRCHC provides wrap-around support services through programs that address non-medical, poverty-related issues and also now operates the nation’s largest asylee temporary shelter for those seeking asylum. Direct Relief began a partnership with Jericho Road in 2015 and has since sent the organization 115 shipments with over 517,000 defined daily doses of requested medical products.

Field Medic Backpacks Arrive in the Dominican Republic

Earlier this year, Patronato Benefico Oriental (PBO), an non-profit partner of Direct Relief that is located in the Dominican Republic, received field medic backpacks and then redistributed them to 29 health institutions across the island. A training was also carried out on how to use the backpacks. Rafael Vicioso, Director of the Civil Defense of La Romana, facilitated the training and gave attendees detailed information on the products in the backpacks.

In addition to its broader community health support work, PBO operates a large children’s project called Hogar del Niño (Children’s Home) that includes medical and dental health care, daycare services, a primary school, a vocational school, and tutoring for 85 deaf, mute, and blind children. The home also provides nutritious meals to thousands of children. The availability of daycare frees up the Dominican and immigrant Haitian parents of these children to work.

Ukrainian partner Delivers field medic backpacks

Earlier this week, Direct Relief’s Ukrainian partner NGO Zhytomyr Hub delivered 15 emergency medical backpacks to the DSNS state civil defense service in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. As well as tackling the full range of civilian-context accidents and emergencies, the local regional branch of the service dealt with the aftermath of more than 100 missile, bomb and drone strikes since the start of the war in February 2022. Zhytomyr is also Ukraine’s most forested region, and wildfires such as the one that destroyed around 40,000 hectares (about 100,000 acres) of forest in 2020 are a constant threat in the summer months.

OPERATIONAL SNAPSHOT

WORLDWIDE

This week, Direct Relief shipped 1.7 million defined daily doses of medication outside the U.S.

Countries that received medical aid over the past week included:

• El Salvador
• Ukraine
• Syria
• Dominican Republic
• Morocco
• Malawi
• India
• Republic of the Congo
• Somaliland
• Pakistan
• Barbados
• Sri Lanka

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 549 shipments containing more than 11 tons of medications over the past week to organizations, including the following:

• Welvista, South Carolina
• NC MedAssist, North Carolina
• St. Vincent de Paul Pharmacy, Texas
• UNC Health Care, North Carolina
• Palmetto Health Council, Inc., Georgia
• LaSante Health Center, New York
• Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic Pharmacy, Virginia
• Volunteers in Medicine Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
• NOVA ScriptsCentral Inc Pharmacy, Virginia
• Greenville Free Medical Clinic, South Carolina

YEAR-TO-DATE (GLOBAL)

Since Jan. 1, 2023, Direct Relief has delivered 10,700 shipments to 1,990 healthcare providers in 55 U.S. states and territories and 74 countries.

These shipments contained 304 million defined daily doses of medication valued at $1.1 billion (wholesale), totaling 3.6 million lbs.

The post Critical Aid Shipments Depart for New York, Arrive in the Dominican Republic and Ukraine appeared first on Direct Relief.

In the two years since the report was published, experts working in the space of women’s and maternal health say much has changed, but barriers persist. For people who experience menstrual cycles, it’s not only sometimes annoying or painful, but it can also be a costly and isolating experience. To combat costs and keep women and girls in school and employed, entrepreneurs, health workers, and advocates are sharing solutions to support women’s health.

Menstrual products include sanitary pads, tampons, menstrual cups and discs, and lined underwear. The National Organization for Women reported that a menstruating person spends about $20 monthly on period supplies.

When Christine Brown learned about periods and the costs associated with them, she thought it was ridiculously unfair.

“I thought, well, that sucks, and that’s not fair,” said the founder and owner of Kind Cup. “That sounds so expensive that girls and women are going to have to pay for these things.”

Brown has two patents for the Kind Cup, a sustainable menstrual cup with an ergonomic shape created with a minimal carbon footprint. The founder said she began to sketch potential products when she learned that some women might use up to 22 single-use products for each menstrual cycle.

“That’s expensive,” Brown told Direct Relief.

Across the United States, advocates have lobbied for more equitable policies regarding women’s health and to decrease expenses around what’s known as the “Pink Tax,” or additional costs associated with health products targeted toward women. Several states have adjusted Pink Tax laws to decrease how much women and girls must pay for supplies. Last year, Utah’s state legislature voted to support the availability of free period products in schools. This year, California’s state legislature voted to expand the use of federal funds to include period products for needy families.

But the Kind Cup founder said there’s never a “true sense of security” regarding women and menstrual health.

“I see, as a general trend, that we’re moving forward, but then there’s stuff that comes up where you’re like, Oh, I thought we were done with that, but here we go again, you know, there’s never a dull moment,” Brown said.

At the federal level, some healthcare policies have been adapted to allow people who have periods to use employer-driven HSA and FSA funds to purchase supplies.

Brown isn’t the first to design a menstrual cup. Dozens of other products are on the market, but the Kind Cup founder said she wanted to create a product with an improved design and user experience. Brown also recognized that materials matter, and no “fancy labeling and cut corners” would suffice. Brown said that the Kind Cup needed to be a high-quality device that people could trust.  

“You shouldn’t be in pain for having tried a bunch of different products and feeling like something’s wrong with your body,” said Brown. “No, it’s clearly indicative of there being a need for something that’s a better design.”

The Kind Cup has an added social benefit. Any purchase from Brown’s site prompts the buyer to donate a Kind Cup to another person. The first 150 Kind Cups were donated to other menstruating people.

Earlier this year, almost 100 Kind Cups were donated via Direct Relief to a Florida mobile health unit, one of dozens of organizations to receive the cups free of charge.

“We have a lot of uninsured people with barriers to getting health care,” said Michelle Nall, a nurse practitioner at the University of Florida’s Mobile Outreach Clinic.

The mobile unit is a program between the College of Medicine at the University of Florida and the university’s medical system. The mobile unit’s staff provides free, comprehensive, primary care for people without health insurance – largely those affected by factors including poverty, according to Nall.

The Kind Cups will be dispersed to patients and brick-and-mortar locations associated with the university’s health system and its partners, like local food pantries and churches. The mobile unit serves about 2,000 patients in North Central Florida, and Nall said that period poverty is common among their patients.

The nurse practitioner said that the need for reproductive justice remains pertinent as government policies shift, like the Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022 allowed states to ban abortions, which restrict a person’s choice regarding personal health decisions, and the 2023 law signed by President Joe Biden that requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnant employees through the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

So, Nall focuses on what she can do to provide support for menstruating people in her community—whether they plan to have children or not.

Nall said it’s key to ask questions to gain a better understanding of what a patient needs to provide the appropriate support service.

Understanding the needs of menstruating people is a worldwide advocacy issue.

Diana Nelson, global advocacy director at Days for Girls International, said that in many countries, women who don’t have access to products are more likely to miss school and or work while menstruating. DFGI is a nonprofit that distributes sustainable menstrual health products around the world and participates in education and advocacy efforts regarding menstrual health.

To ensure worldwide understanding that menstruating is a natural process, Nelson said it’s key to include people who don’t menstruate in the conversation.

“It’s natural, it’s normal, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s nothing to be scared of,” Nelson said. “So many girls wake up with blood, and they have zero idea what’s happened.”

Nelson said that DFGI works with volunteers and community leaders to educate people about menstruation cycles. That includes suggestions on creating supportive environments and sharing data about the impacts on women and girls who miss school or work while menstruating. Nelson said that in some places, menstruating people do not have a private bathroom and opt to go home in the middle of the day.

“If you want to increase education, then you need girls to stay in school… research shows they are missing school either because they don’t have access to products or because you don’t have the infrastructure where they can privately change,” Nelson said. “If you want your GDP to grow, if you want to create a labor market, you recognize that women are 50% of the laborers. And if they’re missing work because of their periods, or if they’re missing work because they have to leave to go find somewhere to manage their period….they don’t come back to work, and that is impacting your growth and your job market.”

Nelson also said good advocacy means helping the broader public understand how a singular issue impacts everyone.

To address period poverty, Direct Relief has provided period products, including Kind Cups, pads, tampons, Days for Girls kits, and more across the U.S. and globally.

The post Menstrual Health Experts Say Period Poverty Continues Across the Globe appeared first on Direct Relief.

With hurricane season here, Florida is bracing for the worst. The state ranks sixth in the country for most weather-related power outages over the past 20 years. Powering through weather-related disasters carries far-reaching public health considerations. Health centers must be able to keep their doors open to respond to local health needs after catastrophic weather events, yet reported experiencing, on average, three outages per year.

These outages aren’t only harmful to public health; they’re also incredibly costly for health centers — averaging around $41,000 per day, according to a report released last month.

The Florida Association of Community Health Centers, or FACHC, assessed which sites have emergency power sources and found that nearly 60 percent of 800 health center sites do not have a backup power system, while a significant majority (84%) reported a desire to expand emergency power sources across their sites.

The results were published in a report prepared by FACHC and Clean Energy Group, or CEG, with input and support from Direct Relief, which examines current emergency backup power capabilities of Florida health centers, as well as opportunities for resilient power—solar PV paired with battery storage systems—at health centers.

What Prevents Resilient Power Adoption?

The survey also explored barriers to implementation — maintenance costs, facility structure and age, location vulnerability, and limited knowledge as some of the main barriers to installing backup power systems.

The cost of a backup power system was identified as the single largest hurdle by health centers, with almost 50% of respondents selecting “Installation Cost” as the primary barrier, according to the report.

Thirty percent of health centers indicated that the facilities’ age and/or other vulnerabilities impacted ability to move forward with backup power system investments. Structural issues, such as an old roof or outdated electrical wiring, can also be so cost and time prohibitive. The report also highlighted location vulnerabilities, like being in a flood plain, that can make siting backup power especially difficult.

Lack of awareness about backup power solutions as an option was also a reason that health centers had not moved forward on the issue, the report stated. Over 20% of health centers reported a lack of knowledge or capacity to explore available backup power options as a primary barrier, and newer technologies like solar and battery storage may be even more unfamiliar.

Power for Health

Direct Relief is a longstanding partner of FACHC and works extensively with Florida’s health centers on an ongoing basis and in response to emergencies.

Direct Relief’s Power for Health Initiative was launched in 2021 to help nonprofit community health centers in the U.S. maintain power and remain operational through increasingly common power outages resulting from disasters and electrical grid failures. The organization has committed to funding 100% of the costs of the design and installation of resilient power systems for up to 15 health center sites (one location per organization) throughout Florida.

“As this effort progresses, FACHC plans to share the insights gained to demonstrate the importance of emergency power for Health Centers and generate opportunities to enhance planning with regional coalitions, state and local emergency management, and hospital networks. FACHC also intends to use this information to explore potential financing options and funding streams for future projects through Hazard Mitigation Grants and other federal, state, and local programs,” the report stated. “Over the long term, FACHC’s goal is to see a significant increase (up to 20%) in the number of Health Center sites that utilize emergency power systems, thereby enhancing each location’s capacity to continue operations and provide access to critical health center services during an emergency event.”

Paying for Sources of Power

While Direct Relief’s Power of Health Initiative has provided a unique opportunity for a select number of health centers to design and install a hybrid backup system that provides resilience, additional paths forward must be considered.

Fortunately, there are alternative ways to overcome the financial barriers to installing power options. In addition to Direct Relief’s philanthropic approach to funding resilient power projects outright, The CHARGE partnership (Community Health Access to Reliable Green Energy) offers education, assessment, installation, and financing options for health centers. A collaboration between NACHC, Capital Link, and Collective Energy, CHARGE’s goal is to make resilient, reliable energy easy and affordable for health centers so that health centers can prioritize patient health. CHARGE can also help health centers navigate the many different solar incentives out there right now, such as the Inflation Reduction Act’s Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC).

Click here to read the full report.

Helping health centers in hurricane-prone areas is becoming a focus of policymakers. This week the Department of Health and Human Services announced $65 million in funding to ensure people have access to care at health centers when disaster strikes. The funding can be used for new construction, renovations and infrastructure repairs at health centers in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico to prevent flooding, upgrade emergency generators, and improve communication and mechanical systems ahead of future disasters.

“Through hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters, health centers keep their doors open and are a lifeline to services for patients and their communities. This funding helps make that possible,” said HRSA Administrator Carole Johnson in a press release. “We are making this funding available to make sure health centers can respond in an emergency and continue to be cornerstones in their communities when they are needed most.”

— Julia Dempsey, MPH, Environmental Health Program Associate, Public Health Priorities at the National Association of Community Health Centers, contributed to this article.

More information about Direct Relief’s Power for Health Initiative can be found here.

The post With Hurricane Season Here, Florida Health Centers Assess Readiness appeared first on Direct Relief.

Symba Center is a free clinic that operates out of a former gym that was converted into a wellness center for the community during the Covid-19 pandemic. While providing services to the area’s most vulnerable residents was always a challenge, providing mental health was even more difficult, according to co-founder and pharmacist Shawn Smith.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration has recognized that Symba Center is in a geographically-designated Health Professional Shortage Area for both primary and mental healthcare. Smith said that the shortage is even more acute as it relates to the population he and his colleagues are caring for.

“People on the street usually have tremendous needs for mental healthcare… There are a very limited number of psychiatrists and therapists here, and we wanted to offer services for people who could not get an appointment at all because they don’t have insurance,” Smith said. Symba Center found that about 40% of the homeless shelter occupants they care for suffer from major depressive disorder and general anxiety disorder.

“The major factor leading to homelessness among our population is a mental health disorder,” Smith said.

In Northern California, a similar lack of resources faced Jose Perez, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and the care team at Samaritan House, a nonprofit that runs free clinics in San Mateo and Redwood City. Perez was hired in 2020 to start a mental health department but faced acute shortages.

“We realized the need for mental health care was huge,” he said after the clinic started implementing initial screenings. “The demand was there, but we had no staff,” Perez said, adding that, in total, only 10 hour-long appointments, paid for by the clinic, were available each week. He reported a 43% increase, year-over-year, in mental health referrals to his clinics.

Last year, Symba Center and Samaritan House were two of 11 free and charitable clinics which received a $75,000 grant to expand mental health care access to some of the most vulnerable populations in the United States. Over $17 million worth of mental health-targeted Teva pharmaceuticals were also made available to over 400 free and charitable clinics.

As a result of the grants, free and charitable clinics have been able to hire additional staff, launch internship programs, offer educational resources, including group sessions, increase collaborative efforts with local organizations and providers, and implement mental health screening programs for their patients. In total, these clinics have reached, directly and indirectly, about 22,000 people.

These developments have helped address not just mental health care needs but also primary health care needs.

“If people aren’t feeling good about themselves, they are less likely to take showers, clean their house, eat healthy, take meds, and are more likely to do destructive behavior,” said Smith. “Before the grant, there were not too many places to refer to. There’s a service gap… This has allowed us to expand our services to a whole new model.”

Smith said Symba Center is now caring for twice as many patients as before regarding mental healthcare. There have been other benefits as well.

“The more services we can offer, the more we can be available to patients, the more they trust us to provide care for them,” he said. Symba Center has been able to hire a licensed marriage and family therapist who oversees graduate interns. They have also started offering trauma-informed education to shelter staff.

At Good Samaritan, which serves a largely immigrant population, Perez said a large focus has been on implementing culturally competent care given by bilingual providers. They have started a training program and hired both a full-time and a part-time clinical and a group facilitator. He said that his clinic does not usually use the term “mental health” which he said has a negative stigma in the Latino community.

“Instead, we use the word ‘consejeria’ (counseling) or ask ‘do you need someone to hear you out?’” said Perez. “We use those terms to get them in the door and then plan what mental health is and how we can help them.”

Beyond language, Perez said treating patients with culturally competent care leads to better results.

“’I look like you, I can help you, I want to help you’… We take time to build rapport, without it they’re (patients) not going to be open to treatment. Otherwise, I’m just someone telling them what to do,” he said, adding that he is also an immigrant.

Still, even with care tailored to the local community, some people do not feel comfortable broaching the subject. Recognizing this, Perez ordered informational booklets on a range of mental health topics, such as depression, grief, anxiety, stress, family violence, suicidal ideation, and alcoholism. Each one is about 15 to 20 pages long and offers techniques that readers can use to help address these conditions.

Perez said the most popular topic in Redwood City, which has a more recently-arrived immigrant client base, has been depression, followed by stress and grief. In San Mateo, which has more elderly patients, it has been those, plus self-esteem and co-dependency.

The differing, though related, focuses across Symba Center and Samaritan House reflect how free and charitable clinics respond to the specific needs of their communities. Free and Charitable Clinics and Pharmacies provide care to about 2 million people in the U.S., according to the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics.

Ultimately, Smith said, it always comes back to the patients.

“If you can provide a level of service to someone and promote healing to make sure people can really focus on themselves, you remind them they have a purpose in life, and they have an opportunity to live a life they’ll be proud of.

“I think each person deserves an opp to have services provided to them so they can see themselves being treated well. It’s providing dignity to humanity,” Smith said.

Funding for these programs was made available through Community Routes: Access to Mental Healthcare, a partnership between Direct Relief, the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, and Teva Pharmaceuticals, which provides financial and medication support to clinics expanding access to mental health services.

The post “Providing Dignity to Humanity,” Free Clinics Expand Mental Health Care appeared first on Direct Relief.

In South Carolina’s Lowcountry, barrier islands and rural inland communities sit just above sea level. It was here, along the nation’s southeastern coast, that residents in Beaufort County lacked indoor plumbing into the early 1970s. That changed when a rural, Black community found ways to funnel money to build a health center, created their own water company, and subsequently produced better health outcomes.

Throughout the 1960s, health conditions were dire. Hypertension was widespread, and Beaufort had the lowest life expectancy rate in the state. In 1965, an average of 62 out of 1,000 children in Beaufort “did not live to see their first birthday,” according to the New York Times. By 1969, there were at least 600 homes in Beaufort and Jasper counties without sanitary facilities. Almost 1,800 households had annual incomes below $1,000, and just under 5,000 households had annual incomes under $3,000.

At the time, Beaufort’s Levy, Limehouse, and Bellinger Hill neighborhoods were predominantly Black; home to descendants of slaves who had earned multi-acre plots of land after the Civil War. Instead of installing costly indoor plumbing, property owners dug shallow wells in their yards, just five feet below the surface. Families carried buckets of water into the house for cooking and bathing. There were outhouses for waste. They unknowingly drank water infested with Ascaris lumbricoides, or intestinal parasites. Black children were disproportionately affected and had recurring cases.

“Seventy-three percent of the Negro children had intestinal parasites, and nearly five percent of the white preschool children had intestinal parasites,” a University of South Carolina report shared at a U.S. Senate hearing.
Few could afford necessary medical care, and far fewer had enough to fix the water-related health issues at their source.

“To see a kid who is three years old, pass a worm that is two feet long, it was unbelievable,” said Roland Gardner, a community leader who spearheaded many of the reforms. “That woke me up.”

While the lack of potable water in Beaufort County was an immediate problem, government officials were preoccupied with national poverty rates and racial desegregation. So, local advocates vowed to find solutions and advocated for a federally qualified health center with affordable payment options. In the fall of 1970, the doors opened to Beaufort Jasper Hampton Comprehensive Health Services, Inc, often called ‘Comp Health.’ In turn, leaders of the health center supported a new water system and created jobs for residents, influencing better health outcomes for decades. By 1974, reports indicated that the infant mortality rate had decreased by two-thirds.
“It was almost like a miracle,” said Thomas Barnwell, the first executive director of Comp Health. “Because just, for example, solving the problem of intestinal parasites was described by the epidemiologist as an almost unsolvable situation.”

In 53 years, Comp Health has expanded to host 15 health programs at 10 locations across Beaufort, Jasper and now Hampton counties. Just three executives have led the health center since its inception in 1970: Thomas Barnwell, Roland Gardner, and Dr. Faith Polkey.

The creation of the water system and the health center has yielded massive dividends; Beaufort has been recognized as the healthiest county in South Carolina for the last 11 years, and its residents have the longest life expectancy in the state.

It all started with the desire to meet an unmet need.

“Water was basic. It was a need that many people had,” Barnwell said.

The Need for Change

Barnwell, now 88, is a descendant of families from Mitchelville, the first self-governed community of formerly enslaved people in South Carolina. He still owns acres of land on Hilton Head Island, which he intends to pass down to his sons.

In the mid-to-late 1960s, researchers visited Beaufort County and surrounding areas to document issues of health and hunger. Barnwell was working at the Economic Opportunity Commission and spent his free time driving his mother, a licensed nurse who cared for pregnant women, to her appointments. She worked alongside a white physician who identified the parasites. Hannah Barnwell told her son of the depressing health conditions during their rides around town and encouraged Thomas to help find a solution.

“She said, ‘let me tell you something, son, it’s more important to provide service to people than to make money,’” Barnwell recalled.

In 1969, Barnwell testified at a U.S. Senate hearing to advocate for the creation of a federally qualified health center in Beaufort. He told the committee that the health center’s priorities would be defined by the needs of the community, which was still lacking basic sanitation infrastructure.

“But, in the area of sanitation, and I speak of basic needs—out-houses—we have been unable to fund them, projects to construct them. It is not improbable that the cost of eight studies dating from 1936 confirming the presence of the Ascaris worm in our community would, alone, have built 600 privies vital to the blotting out of these parasites. Apparently, we can send a man to the moon, but we can’t build outhouses…We have been attempting since 1966 to bring potable water to areas where residents have to haul water in buckets, bottles, or cans. Most of them are too poor to afford pumps even if potable groundwater were available. To this date, not one drop of water has reached them”

– Thomas Barnwell, in his 1969 testimony before the U.S. Senate

Transcripts from that hearing detailed the severity of Beaufort’s poor health conditions, compared to the millions of federal dollars spent on international aid for water and waste disposal and the stark differences between white and Black communities in America. Several mentioned the “desperate need” for a health center, potable water, and a sewerage system.

“Clearly, these children are suffering from the chronic effects of undernutrition, parasitism, and repeated bacterial and viral infections,” said James P. Carter, a Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Meharry Medical College professor.

After the hearing, Beaufort County received several grants, including $342,000 for a health center. Senator James Wadell appointed Barnwell as chair of the health center’s advisory board to manage federal funding. In the fall of 1970, the Comp Health building opened to serve 25,000 low-income residents of Beaufort and Jasper counties.
Barnwell hired Beaufort locals to work at the health center.

He had connections through family, his volunteer work, and previous employment at Penn Community Services and the Economic Opportunity Commission. Though he had taken courses at seven universities, he didn’t have a college degree– so he contacted those who did. He called Roland Gardner, who at the time was a graduate student at Howard University and was home in Beaufort for winter holiday.

Gardner, who later became CompHealth’s longest-tenured CEO, said Barnwell asked him to write an outline for a potential children’s behavioral health program. At the time, Black children in Beaufort were sent to special education classes under the guise of behavioral health issues, which delayed their educational development.

Barnwell shared Gardner’s report in Washington the following spring and called the grad student from the airport.

“He said he needed somebody to run the program,” Gardner told Direct Relief, laughing.

Gardner promised to return to Beaufort to temporarily work for Comp Health upon graduation. He started the behavioral health program and found that most of the children had psychological issues due to poor living conditions, not behavioral health challenges. According to Gardner, the energy that Barnwell brought to the area mobilized others to get involved.

“That’s what this was,” said Gardner. “People in a community who said, ‘Nobody is going to come help us; we have to do it ourselves.’”

Gardner became President and CEO of Comp Health in 1980 until he retired in 2022.

FUNDING POTABLE WATER IN BEAUFORT AND BEYOND

With the health center established, funding for what became the Levy Limehouse Bellinger Hill Water Company was next on the community’s list.

Federal dollars existed for rural communities, but with federal racial desegregation taking place, not all local authorities were willing to help Black residents access those dollars.

Barnwell and Thad Coleman, the first African American to sit on the Beaufort Jasper Water Sewer Authority board of directors, began to work with a national nonprofit: The National Demonstration Water Project, or NDWP. Their mission was to help low-income, rural families gain access to safe, potable water.

The organization’s board, made up of executives from health centers and housing programs across the country, met on a quarterly basis to find clean water solutions.

“It was very exciting to see that we were traveling in a route that would open doors for people around the country,” Barnwell said. “Our problem was a greater problem as we dug more into it.”

In Bonnie Lefkowitz’s book Community Health Centers: A Movement and the People Who Made it Happen, she shares that the USDA didn’t want to support “smaller, community-based systems.” Granting loans to impoverished rural communities that couldn’t meet a marginal tax requirement as a down payment was risky.

Lefkowitz says the NDWP sued the USDA’s program to receive special funding.

Retired judge and civil rights activist Olly Neal Jr. was an NDWP member who worked alongside Barnwell and Coleman. He was the founding executive director of the Lee County Cooperative Clinic in Arkansas. Neal told Direct Relief that the group had to prove that the shallow wells built across the country were “major contributors” to the health problems of children and that financial support for new cluster well systems would solve the issue.

“That was the most important thing that we did, in my opinion,” Neal said. “We got loans to low-income communities so they could be eligible (for the program).”

Ultimately, the Congressional Budget Committee approved a $200 million budget for federal loans for water systems nationwide, and Comp Health would receive $40,357. Comp Health and other NDWP members had gained momentum on what was now a national water crisis.

THE PEOPLE OF BEAUFORT

Lorraine Bond still remembers the smell of sulfur in Beaufort from the contaminated water. “If you were washing dishes and you were wearing jewelry, it would turn the jewelry, so you had to take off the jewelry in order to wash dishes,” Bond said.

Bond sits on the Board of the current regional water system in Beaufort. Her mother, Juanita White, worked on special projects for Comp Health and was an advocate for what became the Levy Limehouse Bellinger Hill water company. As a child, Bond found her mother digging along the side of the road in desperation for pipes that would lead to clean water. Neighbors who had questions about the water would call her as early as 6 a.m.

“It was weird because my mother was very feminine and a very classy dresser, and here you go see her in the ditch with mud all over,” Bond said.

Residents had a lot of questions. Most earned less than $3,000 annually and didn’t want to stop using their free, shallow well taps and pay $50 into the new water system.

“You had to convince them to take the water,” said Emory Campbell, who was involved in the efforts. “People were reluctant, skeptical… and signing a piece of paper was a serious thing for people.”

Campbell was involved in the AmeriCorps VISTA program at the time, though he’s best known for his contributions to civil rights and preserving and sharing the cultural significance of the Gullah Geechee people on Hilton Head Island. Like Gardner, he too was encouraged by Barnwell to return to Beaufort. Campbell had an advanced degree in environmental engineering and eventually left the VISTA program to work for the State’s Health and Environmental Department, which was key in the development of the water system.

Historically, African Americans were untrusting of some government systems and signing documents that might not have truly benefited them long-term, Campbell said. VISTA participants and health center volunteers knocked on doors, attended church meetings and broadcast radio announcements to build trust and educate the community about the quality of the water that came from shallow wells.

“Our healthcare movement was tied very closely to the civil rights movement,” he said, adding that it was important for residents to hear from their friends and neighbors that the well water was contaminated. Building community-level trust and understanding encouraged people to visit Comp Health for treatment.

“We didn’t know any different, people really didn’t talk about it at that time, I guess,” Pat Walls said. “We realized that there were worms and stuff, but it’s like being Black and white. If you live away from it, you don’t really realize what you’ve got until you get something different.”

Walls had pumped water from her family’s well and carried buckets inside for cooking and cleaning. She learned of the dangerous well water conditions as an adult in the VISTA program and began working with White, while knocking on her neighbors’ doors to encourage them to join the new water program instead.

They, too, realized the issue was bigger than Beaufort. White was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives with Walls as her campaign manager. She served for 15 years as an advocate for clean water and support for rural communities.

The more the community learned, the more they were empowered and wanted to be involved. Once there were enough residents who agreed to switch to the new water system, they named the water project after the areas it served: Levy Limehouse and Bellinger Hill Water Company. The water company’s board was composed of residents who were patients or worked at Comp Health.

The health center became the impetus for community involvement. Residents wanted to participate in the changes and to have a ‘seat at the table’ to develop policies that operated their health, water, school, and government systems.

“Everything that was done by Levy was done by the people,” Bond said.

THE FUTURE IN BEAUFORT

Beaufort’s health conditions drastically improved after Comp Health opened and clean water became accessible. Employment rates increased, and the Lowcountry became a more desirable place for people to live.

By 1989, the Levy Limehouse Bellinger Hill Water Company had reached capacity. The original cluster well system was the most efficient and economical choice for the 1970s, but not sustainable given the area’s growing population. LLBH was sold to the regional entity, Beaufort Jasper Water Sewer Authority, which paid the owners of 822 properties for their shares. Walls was chair of the board then and negotiated with lawyers to ensure property owners were paid based on the years they were connected to the system.

However, since the change in ownership, not every LLBH home was connected to BJWSA’s water and sewer lines. Many homes rely on septic tanks, and some property owners have been placed on a waitlist for sewer access—but it’s unlikely, given the low-lying area’s limited groundwater access and continued development growth. The other option is to support trucking and manufacturing companies that are trying to build in the Levy community in hopes that the company will run a new sewer line across their property. But allowing major companies to build in the area could create other issues for property owners in the rural area.

Michael Bell, the immediate past chair and current board member of BJWSA, said increasing water and sewer access in Beaufort’s Levy community is ongoing work. Bell, one of two African Americans on the BJWSA board, said that he follows in the footsteps of people like Barnwell, Coleman, and White, in ensuring that safe and potable water is available to all Beaufort residents.

Dr. Polkey, the newest President and CEO of CompHealth, says she, too, follows in the footsteps of great leadership in Beaufort County.

“That’s how we started, right?” Polkey said. “It (started) from people being in the community and being willing to go out to where the people are.”

Maintaining and building new partnerships in the community remains of high importance to Comp Health leadership. Polkey’s background is in pediatric, public health and preventative medicine, and she has spent her first year leading Comp Health through strategic planning. Originally from the Charleston area, she began working at Comp Health years ago when Gardner was still at the helm. She learned the history of the health center and the important role the community plays in its own health outcomes.

Polkey said that during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, they realized a greater need for telehealth opportunities, dental and mental health supports, and methods to address the social determinants of health.
“Keeping the community part in our community health center is of the utmost importance, like understanding the mission being central, and that is to take care of the community,” she said.

Polkey said that every community deserves the best health care, which requires advocates willing to create change to bring about better health outcomes.

“I never want us to be this corporate thing that is chasing the dollar and chasing that next patient,” she said. “We’re not here for that. We’ll take care of everybody and understand how we started and why; that’s still really important.”

The post How a Black Community Brought Affordable Health Care and Clean Water to Rural South Carolina in the 1970s appeared first on Direct Relief.

The shipments contained 12.6 million defined daily doses of medication, including vitamins, cardiovascular medicines, antibiotics and more.

Direct Relief convenes Caribbean Resilience Summit in Puerto Rico

This week in Puerto Rico, Direct Relief met with top health officials from 15 Caribbean nations to discuss increased collaboration of emergency response activities and risk mitigation due to the increased frequency and intensity of disasters and emergencies across the region.

The summit brought more than 40 leaders from across the Caribbean together to hear from medical and industry experts on the increased risk of disasters and the threats such events pose to health infrastructure in hurricane-prone areas around the region.

Read more here.

Midwife Kits arrive in Kampala, Uganda

This week, 90 Safe Birth Kits, which contain medical essentials for midwives assisting with birth, cleared customs in Kampala, Uganda, and are now safely stored at the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union (UNMU). UNMU will collaborate with Uganda’s Ministry of Health to distribute the kits to health providers.

This week, Direct Relief staff also participated in the International Confederation of Midwives 33rd Triennial Congress in Bali, sharing insights on data science and the role of midwives in humanitarian emergencies.

The International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) supports, represents and works to strengthen professional associations of midwives worldwide. There are currently 140 Midwifery Associations, representing 119 countries across every continent. Together these associations represent over 1 million midwives globally. 

Responding to Smoke from Canadian Fires

In response to widespread smoke impacts in U.S. cities in the Northeast and Midwest, Direct Relief dispatched more shipments of medical aid to health centers in New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania this week. Air purifiers, N95 masks, and respiratory and ophthalmic medications are bound for health centers in smoke-impacted areas.

Responding to The Dam Explosion in Ukraine

Ukrainian and international organizations, including Direct Relief and its local partner organizations, are scaling up operations to replenish medical stocks at local hospitals following the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine on June 6. Waters reportedly rose as much as 10 feet above normal levels in parts of the Kherson region, prompting a massive exodus of people

On June 13, the Chernivtsy-based NGO Hromada Hub delivered two truckloads of Direct Relief donated medicines, hygiene products and 20,000 liters of bottled water to Korolenko’s hospital. Having first consulted with the hospital about its needs, Hromada Hub delivered a range of medicines, including more than 900lbs (400kg) of Moxifloxacin hydrochloride, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections.

Other Direct Relief-supported organizations in Ukraine also dispatched truckloads of medical products to Kherson. Since the dam collapse, Humanitarian Hub Zhytomyr, located in the eponymous western Ukrainian city, sent five tons of medicines and supplies. It also delivered gasoline-powered water pumps.

In the central city of Uman, the Ukrainian charity Modern Villages and Town sent a truck full of Direct Relief medicines, disinfectants and bottles of water. The organization has also been responding to the aftermath of Russian missile strikes in Uman on April 28 and June 8 that killed 23 people and injured dozens more.

In Ukraine’s east-central Poltava region, Direct Relief’s French partner Association Іnternationale de Сoopération Médicale (AICM) is coordinating a large planned delivery to Kherson with the local health authorities, given the looming threat of diseases like cholera.

Read more here.

OPERATIONAL SNAPSHOT

WORLDWIDE

This week, Direct Relief shipped 7.5 million defined daily doses of medication outside the U.S.

Countries that received medical aid over the past week included:

• Sri Lanka
• Palestinian Territories
• Ukraine
• Bangladesh
• Ghana
• Nicaragua
• Paraguay
• Djibouti

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 434 shipments containing more than 30.9 tons of medications over the past week to organizations, including the following:

• Welvista, South Carolina
• NC MedAssist, North Carolina
• Clinica Colorado, Colorado
• St. Vincent de Paul Pharmacy, Texas
• HealthNet of Rock County, Inc., Wisconsin
• Korean Community Services, California
• CommunityHealth, Illinois
• Sierra Health Center – Fullerton, California
• Hope Clinic and Care Center, Wisconsin
• UNC Health Care, North Carolina

YEAR-TO-DATE (GLOBAL)

Since Jan. 1, 2023, Direct Relief has delivered 8,397 shipments to 1,771 healthcare providers in 55 U.S. states and territories and 65 countries.

These shipments contained 269.7 million defined daily doses of medication valued at $942.2 million (wholesale), totaling 8.3 million lbs.

IN THE NEWS

How Direct Relief prepares for severe storms – Fox Weather: The humanitarian organization Direct Relief is gearing up to help those in need during severe weather and hurricanes.

Can off-grid energy solutions be the answer to climate-related disasters in the MENA region? – Fast Company Middle East: “Direct Relief is a not-for-profit helping deliver off-grid power to health centers for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Their President and CEO, Thomas Tighe, explains, “Modern health care presumes constant power availability. But successive years of record-setting wildfires, hurricanes, cold snaps, and flooding that have resulted in extended power shut-offs have eroded the validity of that presumption.”

Donated Intravenous Nutrients Are a Lifeline for Patients in Lebanon – Anera: “Lebanon’s economic crisis is making it more and more difficult to supply TPN bags because they are expensive and growing scarce. In its constant efforts to respond to Lebanon’s health needs, Anera has facilitated the distribution of a much-needed donation of more than 4,800 TPN bags for public hospitals across Lebanon. The donation was provided by Direct Relief, which has supported the Lebanese healthcare sector for years and continues to do so in partnership with highly active organizations like Anera.”

The post Mobilizing Health Crisis Response in the Caribbean, Ukraine, and Around the World appeared first on Direct Relief.

“We were very worried about the intensity of the storm that was predicted, so we took on preparation,” said Dr. Iftikher Mahmood, Director and Founder of HOPE Foundation. “We secured our hospital as much as possible. We put together teams of doctors, nurses, midwives, support staff – and they all stayed during the storm to assist with patient care.”

Since August 2017, an unprecedented humanitarian emergency has unfolded in the region as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees have crossed the Myanmar border into neighboring Bangladesh. This mass migration has created what is now the world’s largest refugee camp forming in southern Bangladesh, between the Myanmar border and the Bay of Bengal.

Direct Relief’s long-time partner the HOPE Foundation, which is based in Cox’s Bazar and specializes in maternal and child health care, has established itself in the refugee camps of southern Bangladesh to provide care for expectant mothers using mobile clinics and the 24-hour field hospital, which has expanded HOPE’s capacity for care.

Sexual and reproductive health services are scarce, given the disproportionate number of women and expectant mothers in the camps. Obstetric surgery in these conditions is limited, so most women must be transported to local hospitals, but in the face of a catastrophic storm, such transport is highly unlikely, if even possible at all.

As the storm raged on, pregnant women arrived at the hospital in labor. The emergency team of staff were on hand to provide the care and support the mothers needed to deliver their babies safely.

“Between our two hospitals, we had several deliveries, including surgical c-sections,” Dr. Mahmood continued. “If we had shut down operations due to fear of the storm, these women could have been at major risk.”

Despite the challenging conditions, the hospital’s team of doctors, nurses, and support staff worked throughout to ensure that patient care continued despite the threat of the storm.

“Direct Relief has provided us emergency response packs for the past four or five years, so we have them as a resource,” said Dr. Mahmood. “Luckily, the storm diverted, and we did not sustain any major damage.”

In addition to the emergency response packs, Direct Relief has sent five shipments to Bangladesh over the last six months, which included 10 tons worth of insulin, prescription drugs, and medical supplies, as well as a shipment of requested medications to Myanmar.

HOPE Foundation will open their new hospital, a six-story facility that has served as a location for patient quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic, and recently as a safe haven for critical patients in dangerous weather conditions.

Direct Relief has provided Hope Hospital for Women and Children with $6.6 million in medical aid, including medical essentials to equip midwives for healthy births, and provided more than $660,000 in grant funding.

The post With Cyclone Mocha Raging, Life Carries on at HOPE Hospital appeared first on Direct Relief.

When homes and hospitals were destroyed, medical professionals created shelter hospitals for emergency procedures and care. Existing medical locations remained open for women to access care when needed. Midwives, who provide an additional layer of care throughout the birthing process, have been a stronghold for birthing mothers throughout the response to the disaster.

Dr. Burcu Yurtsal is the vice president of the Midwives Association of Turkey and Head of the Midwifery Department within the Health Science School at Cumhuriyet University. The Midwives Association of Turkey has been active before and after the earthquakes, serving women and babies. The group distributed 2,200 kits containing hygiene products for women and those recovering from birth across five cities last week. More kits are expected to be delivered this week.

As part of its earthquake response efforts, Direct Relief donated $100,000 to the Turkish Midwifery Association, which has 3,910 members who provide pre-and post-natal home care and childbirth services at Turkish hospitals. Pregnant women and newborns are particularly vulnerable to health risks in disaster settings. The funding will also pay for supplies to facilitate safe births and personal care supplies for pregnant women and those recovering from childbirth.

Yurtsal said that midwives and doctors are constantly working to meet the demand for health care. To decrease the risk of burnout, Yurtsal said most are scheduled to work two weeks at a time and are then required to rest.

Treating earthquake victims who may now suffer from severe health conditions can be emotionally taxing. Yurtsal said the survivors and those caring for them are at an increased risk of trauma.

She also shared that healthcare providers, particularly midwives and doctors, have experienced more stress in the wake of the earthquakes as they provide prenatal, neonatal and postpartum care for many women in Turkey.

Direct Relief is also supporting organizations in Syria providing maternal and child health services in the northwestern part of the country still recovering from the earthquakes. Those organizations include the Syrian American Medical Society, Independent Doctors Association, and Syria Relief and Development.

In Turkey, expectant mothers have direct access to care regardless of location. Yurtsal said that all maternal health services have been made available to women and that the services at the hospital are ‘completely open.’

While also nursing a new baby in her own home, Yurtsal said that it’s important for midwives to connect and communicate with their patients. The midwife said that building peer emotional support and human connection is integral to maternal care to build trust and comfort through the process.

Now, just months after the earthquakes, Yurtsal said that medical providers continue to work together to provide the best care for the women of Turkey.

“I think, at first, people were very (afraid) of so much loss,” she said. “It was really frustrating, a very bad feeling. But after that, we need to keep hope.”

The post Turkish Midwives Step Up for Mothers and Newborns, Post Earthquake appeared first on Direct Relief.

Direct Relief, the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC), and Teva Pharmaceuticals today announced an expansion of medicine donations through their collaborative mental health access program into seven new states to advance access to healthcare for uninsured patients seeking treatment for anxiety and depression.

Through “Community Routes: Access to Mental Health Care,” Teva will continue to provide free and charitable clinics with $2 million in grant funding over two years and make available, on a charitable basis, a portfolio of commonly used generic medications that treat anxiety and depression. Medicines will be available to free and charitable clinics and pharmacies in Direct Relief’s network. The annual value of these medicines provided by Teva is over $17 million this year alone, as determined by their wholesale acquisition cost.

This announcement expands the program’s medicine donations into seven new states: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia, increasing the program’s potential reach to more than 650,000 uninsured patients through 400+ eligible free and charitable clinics across ten total states. The seven new states announced today were selected based on the program’s ability to maximize patient impact, which was determined by assessing unmet needs and the presence of a strong network of free and charitable clinics in each state.

The program was launched in June 2022, following which the pilot states of Florida, New Jersey and California received product donations and subsequently grant funding to selected clinics.

“As the need for mental health support surges, access to care for people living with anxiety and depression is more pressing than ever,” said Thomas Tighe, CEO and President of Direct Relief. “Direct Relief is deeply grateful to Teva for demonstrating such leadership and dedication and welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with the NAFC and Teva to provide patients with the resources necessary to lead happier and healthier lives.”

“We continue to face a mental health crisis across the U.S. and those directly impacted deserve access to treatment, regardless of background or economic status,” said Sven Dethlefs, PhD, Executive Vice President, North America Commercial at Teva. “Teva is committed to the pursuit of health equity and will continue to bring forward its expertise and resources to help ensure medication availability for anxiety and depression.”

“Free and Charitable Clinics are critical to providing care to underserved communities,” said Nicole Lamoureux, President and CEO of NAFC. “We’re appreciative of Direct Relief and Teva’s partnership as we chart new strategies to alleviate healthcare inequities and provide access to medicine for some of the most vulnerable among us.”

“Since the pandemic began, addressing mental health has continued to be a priority for our clinic,” shared Fred Bauermeister, Executive Director at Free Clinic of Simi Valley. “With these donations, we have been able to increase access to medications that treat anxiety and depression for the uninsured or underinsured members of our community, generating both progress and a sense of hope.”

A third of adults in the U.S. show symptoms of anxiety, depression, or both. Notably, more than 5.5 million adults with a mental illness are uninsured, and almost a third of all adults with a mental illness reported they could not receive the treatment they needed.2 Additionally, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial minorities have experienced higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to their white counterparts. Depression was 15 to 23 times more prevalent for those who identify as Black, Hispanic or Asian.

The post U.S. Mental Health Access Program Expands Medicine Donation to Seven New States appeared first on Direct Relief.

ROLLING FORK, MISSISSIPPI — Rev. Travis Gully had just finished dinner and was cleaning up the kitchen when his goddaughter asked him about a noise outside. Gully assumed it was from a passing helicopter on its way to the hospital. The noise grew louder and he could hear one of his godsons call out to him from the living room.

“The trees are walking down the street,” the child said.

Gully’s immediate response was to yell, “Get away from the window!”

On March 24, an EF4 tornado landed in the small, rural community of Rolling Fork, Mississippi. The tornado tore through the Mississippi Delta, crushing everything in its path. Rolling Fork, which is a mile and a half wide, was instantly destroyed as winds of 180 mph whipped from house to house.

“I never want another tree close to my house again,” Gully said.

Gully was physically safe. He was able to move back into his home two weeks after the tornado. However, 13 others in Sharkey County died from the storm. Many more experienced shock and trauma. Amid the destruction and chaos, a community pillar has remained: Delta Health Center.

Since the storm, DHC employees have worked daily to support the physical and mental health needs in Rolling Fork. They’ve made calls to colleagues, like Gully, whose homes were damaged. They’ve driven vans around town to knock on doors and care for residents who were too afraid or unable to travel to the health center. They’ve donated necessities like water bottles, sanitary supplies and baby formula to families in need. Most of all, they’ve been the trusted voice and ear to the community during a tragedy.

“The most graphic one to me was the 90-year-old lady that was just sitting in a pile of rubble and refused to leave because that was all she had,” said CEO John Fairman. “And so, our folks provided some intervention to her until she (agreed to) move.”

Fairman addressed a small crowd of nonprofit supporters in mid-April at DHC’s Rolling Fork location. The structure was totaled by the storm, and a temporary clinic was created on the property. He shared that patient numbers were up from 15 per week to over 80 per week.

Rolling Fork is a predominantly Black city with just over 2,300 residents. Some fear that the storm will force residents to leave the area, and potentially Mississippi altogether. That could hurt the city’s economic conditions. The median household income in the area is $38,558, and 20% of residents live below the poverty line.

DHC received donations of a mobile unit and solar panels for power. Direct Relief supported the organization with a $10,000 grant and disaster kits with medical supplies. The health center has also applied for assistance from Federal Emergency Management Agency.

DHC’s Deputy CEO and Disaster Recovery Coordinator, Neuviska Braughur, said that so far donations have helped survivors who need bandages, antibiotics, tetanus shots, and over-the-counter medication like Benadryl and Tylenol. She rides in the van with a psychologist, family nurse practitioner, doctors, and registered nurses. They created a list of houses visited and returned to some properties to redress bandages day after day.

“The help that we provide to them (is) from our heart,” she said. “It was more than our health care touching them: it’s mentally, emotionally, being there for them to talk to. We wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Braughur said that discussions on mental health are not common in the Black community—prayer is supposed to be best, and many are unwilling to seek out therapy. Her approach is to listen first and share that more people are willing to listen at the clinic if patients want to talk more.  

“When we go out, I always pull them to the side and talk to them about where they’re at,” she said. I ask when did it happen, how do you feel now, and a lot of them say (they) were praying, or hiding, but some can tell me exactly what they did, and from there, we refer them to come to our mobile unit and get some health support.”

As for the mental and emotional health of DHC employees, the deputy CEO said they speak to one another each day. She said she encourages their team to express how they feel and what they need as they continue knocking on doors.

A History of Care

The health center has a long history of providing relief to the community when no one else would. DHC was the first rural federally qualified health center in the nation. Its main campus in Mound Bayou opened in 1965 and accepted Black patients during segregation.

“We’re trusted because we’ve been here through the worst of times, and we’ve remained through the best of times,” said Adoris Turner, DHC’s co-deputy CEO.

Turner lives outside of the area but arrived on the scene the morning after the tornado. He said many were in shock, and utter disbelief at what had happened. There were announcements at his church for missing children, a one-year-old, and a one-month-old, as people talked about fighting to hold on to their loved ones as the wind broke through their homes.

“Some saw loved ones swept into the air,” he said.

The health center granted paid leave to employees like Gully whose homes were damaged by the storm. Nona Cooper, a registration clerk at the health center, was unable to return home in mid-April. The windows to her home were shattered, a fallen tree landed on her house, and other damage made it unsafe for her to live in the residence. She told Direct Relief that her home feels like a cave.

“It was tragic, but just the fact that I’m alive… I get emotional because I think about what could have happened.”

Cooper broke down in tears as she talked about losing her neighbors, her sister and brother-in-law who had to be pulled from the rubble, and seeing the town that she grew up in wiped away within minutes.

The 64-year-old was home alone during the storm. She tried to stay on the phone with her sisters as they watched the news for updates. Then she heard the wind, which Cooper says sounded like a “train approaching with a vengeance.” She grabbed a large furniture cushion and hid in her closet while screaming as the tornado landed in Rolling Fork.

“They were telling us the cities in the path of the tornado,” she said. “Mayersville, they said, it’s about to touch down in Mayersville right now, Rolling Fork, get ready, nine minutes, get ready, and by the time he had said that three times you could hear the wind. Oh my God.”

Gully said he’s heard people talk about the sound of a tornado, but he didn’t understand until he experienced it himself.

“I thought someone was in an 18-wheeler in my backyard and was about to hit my house,” he told Direct Relief.  

Gully underestimated the extent of the damage at first. Then he heard his sister was temporarily trapped in her home. One of the two churches he pastors was destroyed, and two of his parishioners died. He drove around town after the storm to determine the damage to his church and realized that it was gone. Gully said he stood in the parking lot, in shock.

Gully, who grew up in the area, said he’s worried that resources won’t be allocated equitably across Rolling Fork to rebuild. He’s not confident that people whose homes and businesses were destroyed will remain in town and that the economy will be affected.

However, Gully continues to work with his colleagues at DHC and volunteers from out-of-town to clean up and help neighbors recover from the tornado.

“I was telling a friend that of all the times that this has happened to other communities, maybe I’ve neglected to support like I should have,” he said. “It reminded me, you never know when your day is coming, so you should always be willing to help someone else.”

Volunteers from nearby schools like Mississippi Valley State University and disaster relief organizations from all over the country are working with residents to rebuild Rolling Fork. Piles of debris lay on the sides of the road, including the remains of a water tower that the wind knocked over.

The national, united support is astonishing to them, given Mississippi’s aggressive political and racial divides.

“It’s been an amazing display of the human spirit and our humanity,” Turner said.

Cooper said that little has changed since Jim Crow laws were active and that people are still separated politically and socially. However, she believes that the storm will bring a “new beginning” to Rolling Fork.

“I’m 64, so you know I grew up during a time when it was the way that it was,” she said. “But I have seen so much togetherness where people have pulled together, and it’s like everybody just feels the need to help and be there for each other.”

The post Someone To Talk To: Health Center Provides Support After Devastating Tornado appeared first on Direct Relief.

LOS ANGELES — Dr. Edgar Chavez was sleeping when the call came in just before 1 a.m. early Sunday morning in late February amid a series of historic rainstorms. He dressed immediately and drove towards one of his safety net health care clinics in downtown Los Angeles, which was just about finished with significant renovations.

“I opened the (conference room) door, and it was like a river. It looked like a disaster movie,” Chavez, the founder and CEO of Universal Community Health Center (UCHC), said to Direct Relief. A section of the roof from UCHC’s O’Neill Clinic collapsed, allowing a deluge of rainwater into the building. Adding to the chaos, a rafter crashed into a fire sprinkler, expelling more water into the 15,000 square foot health care clinic that had opened the previous October.

The roof and structural failures, along with the water, ejected chairs from the room into an adjacent room and flooded the space with about six inches of water within 30 minutes of the collapse.

UCHC COO Freddy Reynoso, who was first on the scene and contacted Chavez, recalled seeing water flowing out of the clinic’s doors while driving up. “Oh no,” he recalled thinking. All of the electricity was out.

Chavez, who was named one of L.A.’s top doctors by Los Angeles Magazine this year, and Reynoso grabbed brooms and started to clear water out of the clinic as they waited for the cleanup crews to arrive. They were at a local Home Depot as soon as it opened at 7 a.m. to buy sandbags, blowers, and wet and dry vacuums before returning to the locations and continuing their work.

Driving their efforts, Chavez and Reynoso said, was the goal of getting the clinic, which sees over 2,000 patient visits per month, open as soon as possible.

“It was a huge mess…. I was soaking wet the whole time, but we got it done,” Reynoso said. “For me, it was a full range of emotions. I was saddened that something that was just built was damaged so badly, but ultimately, we just focused on ‘how do we operate, how do we open?’ This clinic is within walking distance for many patients, and the other clinics nearby are saturated.”

 The O’Neill Clinic serves what Chavez described as a “working poor” community. It’s where he grew up. Many residents do not have access to private transportation, making it very difficult for them to go to alternate locations.

“The goal is for this to be a medical home for them, and this is their clinic,” Chavez said, noting that he especially did not want to cancel appointments for people who were post-operative or diabetic, among other chronic conditions. Moving their care to another location, he said, might decrease the likelihood of them being able to make it due to lack of transportation, needing to take more time off work, and other logistics-based reasons. As a Federally Qualified Health Center, UCHC’s six locations and a school-based center treat all patients regardless of ability to pay. The system sees about 5,000 patient visits per month.

The initial consensus among the cleanup crews and contractors was that the clinic would be reopened within a month or two. For Chavez, Reynoso, and the staff at UCHC, such a timeline was unacceptable given the acute needs and lack of alternate viable options for so many of their patients in the community.

It took three days, and all preexisting appointments were kept, according to Chavez.

“I’m amazed, I’m quite surprised, not for the work we did, but just for everything coming together. It really took a small village to get everybody here. Nobody said no. Everyone we asked came over,” said Reynoso.

However, the building’s damage was extensive and uninsurable due to being under construction, said Chavez. UCHC is a tenant, which further complicates matters. While some expensive equipment was saved, such as the X-ray machine, much was lost or rendered unusable, including all their on-site servers and exam tables. In a stroke of luck, about $300,000 worth of dental care gear arrived the Monday after the roof collapsed.

Chavez said his team was able to share supplies for other locations to shore up the most critical equipment as they worked to replace it.

Pouya Ansari, a dentist who started working at UCHC the week before the flooding, said he and his team improvised after the flooding to ensure they could keep seeing patients, even if that meant repurposing a podiatry exam chair.

“The team came together, and we came up with some good ideas to be able to see about 15 to 20 patients a day, which I think is really successful,” he said.

Walking through the facility’s patient-facing areas about six weeks after the flood, the only evidence of the flood was water lines on some walls and some warping on desks. The clinic otherwise looked newly renovated, a testament to the hard work of its staff and contractors, which was reflected by a perspective shared by Chavez as he walked through the halls of the clinic.

“We’re providing medical care to people who need it,” said Chavez.

Direct Relief has supported UCHC with a $100,000 grant to help repair their roof and medical supplies. The organization’s fundraiser can be found here.

The post Los Angeles Clinic Reopens Just Days After Flooding appeared first on Direct Relief.

The shipments contained 1.7 million defined daily doses of medication, including antibiotics, surgical supplies, personal care products, and more.

Supporting Rehabilitation in Ukraine

This week, Direct Relief sponsored the First National Rehabilitation Conference at the Unbroken Ukraine Rehabilitation Center in Lviv, Ukraine where it was announced that the organization will be investing an additional $10 million towards rehabilitation efforts for those injured in the conflict.

Direct Relief’s President and CEO, Thomas Tighe, attended the conference and also met with Ukraine’s Health Minister, Viktor Liashko, in Kyiv to discuss emerging needs, strengthen cooperation and mobilize additional humanitarian aid.

Read more about the recent announcement here.

Hemophilia Treatment in Lebanon

Recently, in coordination with local NGO, Anera, Direct Relief delivered 2,100 vials of hemophilia treatment to Lebanon, enough for 350 patients to receive treatment for the next six months.

“In Lebanon, hemophiliacs have confronted new challenges to managing their conditions in recent years. The medical and pharmaceutical sectors have been badly shaken by the nation’s economic collapse. The crisis has affected access to essential medications for patients with chronic conditions, affecting all ages and communities,” states Anera’s latest insight on the situation in Lebanon.

Read more about this donation here.

Material aid for Ukraine

Since Feb. 24, 2022, Direct Relief has provided medical aid to Ukraine weighing more than 2.6 million pounds, or 1,300 tons, with more on the way.

OPERATIONAL SNAPSHOT

WORLDWIDE

This week, Direct Relief shipped 1.3 million defined daily doses of medication outside the U.S.

Countries that received medical aid over the past week included:

• Ukraine
• Vietnam
• Lebanon
• Dominican Republic
• Nigeria
• Bahamas
• Turkey
• Haiti

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 417 shipments containing over five tons of medications over the past week to organizations, including the following:

• Open Door Health Center, Florida
• Agape Clinic, Texas
• Tender Care Community Clinic Inc., California
• HealthNet of Rock County, Inc., Wisconsin
• NC MedAssist, North Carolina
• Family Health Services, Idaho
• Guadalupe Clinic, Kansas
• Community Health of East Tennessee, Inc., Tennessee
• Clearwater Free Clinic, Florida
• Scarsdale Family Health Center, Texas

YEAR-TO-DATE (GLOBAL)

Since Jan. 1, 2023, Direct Relief has delivered 4,708 shipments to 1,345 healthcare providers in 53 U.S. states and territories and 54 countries.

These shipments contained 169.3 million defined daily doses of medication valued at $510.6 million (wholesale), totaling 2.4 million lbs.

In The News

U.S. Humanitarian Organization to Provide Ukraine with $10M for Rehabilitation Development – Ukrinform: “According to Tighe, Direct Relief will continue to provide support to Ukraine as long as it takes. It is also planned to allocate an additional $10 million dollars for the development of rehabilitation assistance.”

“Dobrobut” Continues Program of Free Transfer of Medicines for Cancer Patients – Ukraine Open for Business: “Annually experts of “Dobrobut” carry out more than 7000 operations. The network has over 2,800 employees. Collaborates with a number of international charities Direct Relief, Children of War Foundation, International Medical Corps and the University of Miami Global Institute, as well as the Dobrobut Foundation, a charitable foundation founded by the clinic.”

Unbroken rehabilitation center opens on basis of reconstructed polyclinic building in Lviv – Interfax-Ukraine: “The project was implemented by the Ministry of Health on the basis of the First Medical Association of Lviv. The equipment for the halls was provided by the Direct Relief international foundation and the Swiss Embassy in Ukraine.”

The post Bolstering Support in Ukraine, Providing Aid in Lebanon appeared first on Direct Relief.

ReplenishRx is an enhanced version of a program that provided 91,000 prescriptions to more than 23,000 patients in 2022. ReplenishRx makes it easier for free clinics, community health centers, and charitable pharmacies to enroll in the program themselves, and in turn, makes it easier for providers to enroll individual patients.

ReplenishRx is a streamlined option for pharmaceutical and medical technology manufacturers to donate their products directly to safety net organizations that care for people without health insurance or other means to pay for them.

ReplenishRx provides free medicine only for people lacking any health insurance and with household income at or below 300% of the Federal poverty line. Neither patients nor private insurance companies, nor the government are billed for the medicine. People eligible for ReplenishRx assistance do not qualify for health coverage from their state’s Medicaid program and cannot afford to purchase health insurance.

Pharmaceutical companies or foundations donating medicine to ReplenishRx include AbbVie, Eli Lilly and Company, Johnson & Johnson Patient Assistance Foundation, Medicines360, and Sanofi Cares North America.

“Lilly is deeply committed to expanding access to our medicines,” said Patrik Jonsson, Executive Vice President; President, Lilly Immunology and Lilly USA; and Chief Customer Officer. “We appreciate that Direct Relief’s ReplenishRx program not only reduces administrative burdens on safety-net clinics but also streamlines the process so that patients with limited resources can get the medicines they need, when they need them.”

Lilly and Sanofi both donate insulin through ReplenishRx.

Direct Relief set up its original Replenishment program in 2008 to streamline availability of medicine to uninsured patients at safety net clinics that primarily serve uninsured patients, including Federally Qualified Health Centers and free and charitable clinics and pharmacies. The program was designed to make it easier for patients to get medicine, while improving delivery and management of inventory for safety net clinics and pharmaceutical manufacturers. It helps clinics and charitable pharmacies provide a steady supply of vital medicine to patients lacking insurance, without the need to apply to individual Patient Assistance Programs (PAPs) offered by pharmaceutical companies.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers ship donated medicine to Direct Relief’s warehouse in Santa Barbara, California. Direct Relief manages clinic enrollment, distribution logistics, and compliance oversight of the health clinics. The clinics enroll patients based on strict eligibility guidelines, track all inventory received from Direct Relief, dispense prescribed products to eligible patients, and report product usage back to Direct Relief. Direct Relief’s ReplenishRx enables manufacturers to reach a growing network of safety-net organizations.

“The program provides a consistent, steady supply of medication for patients who have no insurance, who are low-income and have diabetes or another chronic disease,” said Marisa Barnes, who runs the ReplenishRx program at Direct Relief. “We’re reducing the amount of paperwork that’s required to participate, which means more clinics and more patients will be able to take part in the program. We’re anticipating rapid growth, particularly in the provision of insulin.”

Traditional PAPs are most often used by individual patients, who seek out programs for specific drugs, apply themselves for admission and then apply for annual renewals. Many safety-net providers help patients submit and manage the paperwork or do it on their behalf. Each patient, including those enrolled by clinics, requires a separate application from each drug maker. Clinics often rely on volunteers to help patients manage the paperwork.

Direct Relief acts as a single point of contact between each clinic and all the pharmaceutical makers it works with. Each clinic requests all its donated medicine once a month for its eligible patients from Direct Relief, and each pharmaceutical company deals only with Direct Relief to distribute its donated medicine to enrolled clinics. Rather than having to continuously request refills for each drug, enrolled healthcare organizations each month report how much of a medicine they have used, and Direct Relief sends them the same amount of the drug again in a single monthly shipment.

ReplenishRx enables patients to receive medicine at the clinic during the same visit when it is prescribed, reducing the risk that the patient won’t follow through to obtain and take the medicine, and thus improving overall health outcomes.

“Direct Relief’s Replenishment Program streamlines the process of participating in manufacturers’ patient assistance programs for our low-income, uninsured patients,” said Jennifer Buxton, Acting Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Cape Fear Clinic Inc. in Wilmington, N.C. “But, perhaps more importantly, it removes the treatment delay by allowing our clinic to keep inventory on hand that is immediately available for use.”

“Direct Relief’s Replenishment Program has been a complete game-changer for NC MedAssist’s Free Pharmacy Program,” said Dustin Allen, Chief Operating Officer & Director of Pharmacy Operations at NC MedAssist in Charlotte, N.C., the only statewide nonprofit pharmacy in North Carolina. “By ordering medications via a single interface as opposed to four separate ones, it not only cuts down on time needed for order placement but also ensures consistent delivery of medications.”

The original Replenishment program required participating pharmacies to use pharmacy software that many of the smallest healthcare organizations lack. Under ReplenishRx, enrolled organizations can upload the necessary information from their electronic health record systems, allowing a wider degree of participation.

Direct Relief has also made it faster and easier for small healthcare organizations to enroll in the program. Under the original program, it could take eight months to a year for an organization to develop and document the standard operating procedures needed to ensure compliance with donation program requirements, which differ among pharma companies. Direct Relief has now developed a Standard Operating Procedures manual that healthcare organizations can integrate into their processes.

ReplenishRx is just one of the many ways Direct Relief provides support to health centers, free and charitable clinics and charitable pharmacies. Direct Relief’s core Safety Net Program donates medicine and medical supplies to more than 1,300 health clinic and charitable pharmacy locations. The program allows them to request donations of specific drugs, which Direct Relief allocates according to available supply and the number of patients each organization serves. In 2022, the Safety Net Program donated medicine with a wholesale value of $258 million. All the medicine Direct Relief donates to these organizations can be dispensed only to low-income patients lacking any health insurance.

The post Direct Relief’s ReplenishRx Increases Access to Donated Medicine for People Unable to Afford It appeared first on Direct Relief.

Humanitarian aid organizations continue response efforts, but those on the ground say it will be a long-term effort to recovery. Data scientists and information managers have used data analysis to track mobility patterns, understand current needs, map damage to buildings and health infrastructure, and effectively share information.

Crisis Ready, a collaboration between Direct Relief and the Harvard Data Science Initiative, hosted Data in Crisis: Responding to the Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria at Harvard on March 3 with over 200 online participants and many others in person.

The nearly two-hour conversation centered on how crisis response organizations have used novel data sources and methods to support Turkey and Syria. The presenters shared their organization’s response models, how to make ethical and effective use of data, and key takeaways from the disaster so far. While open data has helped to determine where people are going and their current needs, scientists say they still expect a drastic undercount of the displaced population as first responders and families continue to look for residents.

The in-person and Zoom event included internationally known speakers: Dr. Andrew Schroeder, Vice President of Research and Analysis at Direct Relief and Co-Director of CrisisReady; Dr. Caroline Buckee, Co-Director of CrisisReady and Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard University; Dr. Abdulfatah Elshaar, Chairman of the Syrian Medical Society and Internal Medicine Physician at Sturdy Memorial Hospital; Ozge Acar, Technical Coordinator at NeedsMap Social Cooperative; Dr. Samer Attar, a medical volunteer at the Syrian American Medical Society and orthopedist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital; Nathaniel Raymond, lecturer at Yale University in the Humanitarian Research Lab; and Can Unen of OpenStreetMap (HOTOSM).

Schroeder opened the event and shared that over 217,000 structures have been destroyed or deemed unsafe, including 520,000 housing units. Across the globe, digital volunteers have mapped buildings and their degree of damage in the earthquake area. Unen from HOTOSM explained to meeting viewers how precision mapping and open information sharing with international response agencies have been beneficial to saving lives.

With millions displaced, medical supports remain the top reported need: antibiotics, access to chronic disease medications, acute trauma support for search and rescue, and support for the displaced staff of medical organizations.

Attar, who volunteered as a surgeon in Syria, said being on the ground changes one’s perspective. There were limited resources that required doctors to make critical triage decisions. He said that they treated two to three patients on the same bed or even on the floor–most of whom had body parts that had been crushed by shattered buildings.

The surgeon said it was a sobering experience and one where he felt like his contributions were “barely making a dent.” Attar said that doctors performed dozens of surgeries per day, but many more people still need critical medical care.

“There wasn’t a lot of heavy machinery, so we would find people digging through the rubble trying to find relatives, or whoever they could find, using their hands or whatever they could find to dig them out,” Attar said.

Dr. Elshaar, also from SAMS, shared that the situation in Syria is one of the worst humanitarian crises in history, given the dire circumstances of Covid-19, the Russian and Ukraine war, the spread of cholera in Syria, and now the earthquake. He shared that hospitals and clinics have been targeted over the past 12 years of civil war in the country, making access to care more difficult.

The SAMS doctor shared an assessment of immediate needs: wound care, amputations and prosthetics, and medication for diabetes, hypertension, cancer, maternal/pediatric health, cholera treatment, and mental health trauma.

Though the situation in Turkey remains dire, access to data is increasing. Mobility data from Data for Good at Meta, analyzed by organizations like CrisisReady, show that population density is shifting away from highly impacted areas in Syria and Turkey. Survivors of the earthquakes are moving to less impacted areas of the country, including large cities like Ankara and Istanbul and rural areas with less damage. However, it’s unclear what housing will be available to them long term. Many are staying in a range of temporary and ad hoc shelters.

Dr. Buckee shared that institutional challenges are often greater than data challenges for epidemiologists trying to model the spread of infectious diseases like cholera and arboviruses.

She shared that having preexisting partnerships before disaster responses is key and that following simple models during a disaster will reap success in determining which populations are at risk, where displaced people may relocate, and identifying the medium to the long-term impact of infectious and non-communicable diseases. The simpler the models, the better for quick and efficient decision-making.

Some said they use social media to track movement, but real-time information gaps persist.

Social media also plays a key role in mapping the landscape of needs at scale. Projects on digital platforms like NeedsMap are at the center of efforts to report where individuals may need food, shelter, and medical care. They can also highlight where the capacity exists to meet those needs.

While helpful, Raymond reminded the crowd that information must be treated with high degrees of care for both individual privacy and community protection. Data can make an enormous impact on disaster response, but the responsibility exists to ensure that vulnerable populations aren’t exposed to further risk.

Dr. Andrew Schroeder contributed to this story.

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