Dozens of students and faculty prepared about 1,800 pounds of discarded medical supplies for dispersal to Ukraine, Ghana and other countries facing humanitarian crises in the Kimmel Center for University Life Thursday afternoon. The session was one of several hosted as part of the “NYU in Dialogue” series, with the university having prepared more than 10,000 pounds of supplies over the past year.
At the event, representatives from local nonprofit the Afya Foundation guided attendees through the sorting process — which entails checking expiration dates and repackaging batches of unused oxygen tubes, gauze and sutures. The foundation then ships the supplies to countries facing humanitarian crises, according to the needs of international medical practitioners.
Danielle Butin, CEO and founder of the Afya Foundation, told WSN that she started the organization in 2007 to establish a sustainable practice of health care and support. She said the United States is currently the only country in the world that discards unopened medical supplies solely because they have been in the same room as patients.
“We desperately need all hands on deck, and NYU students and faculty and alumni are eager to find ways to help,” Butin said. “We need their help in order for us to be able to make the impact that we intend to make, and by coming together, it’s a multiplier for us to expedite the process.”
As countries are hit with crises and supply deficiencies, doctors request specific items and the Afya Foundation reviews its inventory before sending the necessary supplies. Butin said the organization works closely with centers in Puerto Rico and South Africa, and over the past several months, supplies have also been directed to Israel, Gaza and southern Lebanon.
As part of its “Luggage for Life” initiative, the foundation also works to identify volunteers who will be traveling to a country and can directly deliver the supplies. Kristie Patten, counselor to NYU President Linda Mills and creator of the “NYU in Dialogue” series, told WSN in an interview that the university has been working to take advantage of the university’s 13 study away sites to contribute to this initiative in a more organized way.
“If you support practitioners who are already in impossibly under-resourced circumstances with supplies they need to treat patients, they’re more likely to stay,” Butin said. “We do that by giving them the supplies they need to feel confident and successful in what they can offer their own community.”
Patten also said the experience offers community support for students, faculty and staff who want to aid in international crises. There have been four events with the Afya Foundation at NYU’s Washington Square and Brooklyn campuses so far this year, with another set for April.
Angie Kamath, dean of the School of Professional Studies, said the event was her second time volunteering with the Afya Foundation, and that events like this make volunteering more accessible to members of the university community.
“This felt like a really wonderful, positive, action-oriented thing that we can do,” Kamath told WSN. “Reading headlines makes one feel helpless, and it’s wonderful to be able to just take an hour out of one’s day and do something that goes into life-saving environments.”
Butin said that the most critical supply is wound care because it is critical in countries heavily impacted by war and natural disasters. She recalled a time when she brought bags of medical supplies to East Africa, and a nurse at a clinic told her that if the supplies had arrived an hour ago, it could’ve saved the life of a patient who had just died.
“There is a real daily tragedy for some of these sites that have now lost the funding they need in order to continue to practice care for their communities,” Butin said. “We owe that to people practicing medicine in these circumstances. We owe it to them to show up — because this is the perfect match for what they did.”
Contact Amanda Chen at achen@nyunews.com.
