A Donation of Medical Supplies to the Nurses Association of Belize
COVID-19 is here to stay and there is never too much when it comes to protective gears and medical supplies. On Thursday, the Nurses Association of Belize was handed over a donation of medical supplies which will be distributed across the country to public health facilities. The donation came by way of a non-profit that has been working within communities providing assistance to those in need. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The Nurses Association of Belize was on the receiving end of a donation of medical supplies from a Belizean non-profit organization, God Cares Outreach.
Derrick Pitts, President/Founder, God Cares Outreach
Derrick Pitts
“So a part of our mission is to see people’s lives transformed in the nation of Belize and we try to do that in a holistic manner and a part of that is health. And so when we heard the need of medical supplies and just the shortage of it and visiting some of the clinics in rural communities, I just knew that we had to do something about it. And so I was able to connect with some of our partners stateside and believe it or not, there are warehouse of supplies in the U.S. that is looking for destinations to come and so I said, why not Belize.”
Jason Copeland
Jason Copeland, Historic Providence Christian Church, North Carolina
“There’s nothing wrong with any of these stuff and any country down in Latin America would love to have this stuff. So our biggest challenge is, Mister Pitts already said, is just trying to deal with the logistics. And that’s why I’m here is we can ship a forty-foot container, but once it is here, we have to offload it and store it until we can get it delivered to the rural hospitals.”
President of the Nurses Association of Belize, Renita Pop, says that the donation is timely and will be distributed countrywide to various clinics.
Renita Pop, President, Nurses Association of Belize
Renita Pop
“This donation will definitely come in handy to assist nurses making their jobs a bit easier. It’s significant especially at this point where we are seeing a rise in cases of COVID. So we definitely will be needing a lot more sanitizers, gloves, protective barriers for our staff to protect ourselves and to protect the community and our families at home. As nurses, we go above and beyond to ensure that we have the proper equipment even if it means at times to sacrifice out of our own pockets. We do it for the love of our profession and for the love of our patients.”
According to founder and president of God Cares Outreach, Derrick Pitts, the organization has been working in the community.
Derrick Pitts
“Today, we’ll be delivering an electric wheelchair to a patient, so it is more than just what you see here – syringes, needles – we even have a mobile clinic that we provide services to people on the outskirts that have hard access to get into a hospital or things like that. So what you see here is just a portion of what we are getting ready to do and this is our second container and it is for the nation of Belize. We have nurses and doctors that come in and offer services – dental, eyes, general checkups – and we also provide medication. We are also at the point whereby we are planning a recurring thing to go on whereby patients that come through the mobile clinic – of course, working with the local authorities here – whereby we will be able to supply them with basic medication that they would have to buy at a pharmacy, we could provide that for them and getting them prescribed glasses and those kinda things.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
