$190,000 in supplies shipped to El Salvador; more volunteers join relief efforts
NWMTI
Northwest Medical Teams is answering the desperate cry from earthquake victims in El Salvador with an 11,000-pound shipment of emergency medical supplies and other humanitarian aid. The materials are valued at more than $190,000. They left by truck from the local International Distribution Center, 6955 SW Sandburg St., Tigard, Ore., this morning. With 274 dead and thousands injured and left homeless, the government of El Salvador and relief teams in the poor, devastated country have issued an international plea for supplies. "Local hospitals are overwhelmed by this new disaster," reports Dennis Bean, a volunteer paramedic from Newberg, Ore. "We're out of supplies. We have to send more help." In addition, Northwest Medical Teams sent a doctor, a paramedic and a nurse on a flight tonight to join its seven-member team already in the country. The doctor/nurse team is from the Portland area. Besides today's shipment, the additional team members have carried in supplies to provide immediate aid and to help replenish the most-desperate needs in hospitals and clinics in the affected areas.
Meanwhile, Northwest Medical Teams requests donations of cash or medical supplies to support their work in El Salvador. Bas Vanderzalm, president of Northwest Medical Teams, says that the needs of quake victims in both El Salvador and India have nearly depleted the organization's reserves of emergency medical supplies. "We've never seen this many disasters in different parts of the world within such a short period of time," he says. "Our warehouse is getting pretty bare. We'll have to purchase emergency supplies with cash reserves if donated items don't come forth soon."
To donate supplies or to make a financial gift, call 1-800-959-4325, or mail gifts to Northwest Medical Teams, El Salvador Earthquake Fund, P.O. Box 10, Portland, OR 97207. Donations are also being accepted at any USBank office in the area.
Simply mention the Northwest Medical Teams Disaster Fund.
=A9 2000-2001 Northwest Medical Teams International Inc.
Northwest Medical Teams
El Salvador: Earthquake - Feb 2001
El Salvador: Earthquake - Jan 2001
El Salvador: Earthquake Appeal No. 02/2001 Operations Update No. 22
USAID fact sheet: Assistance to El Salvador
El Salvador's fight against disaster