Tb News Source
Web Posted: 1/17/2007 9:37:18 PM
Volunteers were popping pills Wednesday - popping pills out of their
packages that is.
It's an effort by the Medical Equipment Modernization Opportunity, or
MEMO, to collect and deliver unused medications from local doctors'
offices and pharmacies to an underprivileged hospital and other clinics
in Cuba.
In the past two and a half years the organization has provided them with
medical equipment worth millions of dollars. And over the past couple of
months, the group has begun collecting medications that no longer meet
the Canadian Medical Standards but are greatly needed in a country like
Cuba.
MEMO Cuba CEO Dr. Jerome Harvey says they'll be sending the
pharmaceuticals, which includes everything from blood pressure pills and
asthma medication to antibiotics.
''The government really can't afford to buy a lot of medications. And
so, you go into a pharmacy in Cuba and the shelves often are almost
empty, '' he said.
Harvey says the Cuban government only allows each person to bring 20
pounds of pharmaceuticals with each visit. So, volunteers were
consolidating the overly-packaged medications into different bags to
save space. Harvey says they usually have a few volunteers do the job.
But because there were so many donated medications this time, they
needed the help of the community. Over a dozen volunteers came forward
to prepare the medications for delivery.
A MEMO Cuba team will deliver the medications when it travels to Cuba in
late February.
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