For the first time ever, Jacques hosted two Congolese gentlemen in the St-Emile-de-Suffolk “warehouse” (aka our garage) last weekend. Patrick drove all the way from Toronto the same day, arriving with his brother-in-law Vincent in late afternoon. They took away boxes of syringes and needles and samples of some of our other supplies. Patrick drove back up on Thursday and filled his SUV with supplies from Maurice’s warehouse as well.
Recently, Appletree closed one of its clinics. Kaitlyn spent the better part of a weekend inventorying all of the contents: furniture, office supplies and equipment, exam beds and lots of medical supplies. Between Patrick, Vincent, Hassan (exam beds, autoclave, otoscopes, etc.), Maurice (furnishings) and Jacques (medical supplies), the former clinic has been pretty well emptied. Way to go Kaitlyn!
Cathy Dufour reports that the supplies she brought with her to Guatemala were very gratefully received. On Thursday, 85 music students from Canterbury High School descended on Padre Enrique in Havana with about 100 kg of NJT-Ottawa supplies and some much-needed meds.
Jacques has been busy coordinating pretty well all NJT pick-ups and drop-offs as well as finding a home for $2.3 million worth of pandemic medical supplies housed in the Winnipeg office of Health Canada. World Vision Canada has gratefully accepted the entire inventory. Next week, he plans to rent a cargo van and empty the garage of a nurse in Oxford Station. Seems she couldn’t bring herself to throw out all the surplus supplies from her patients… for about the past five years! Go Jacques!
We haven’t had a meeting in awhile so we’d like to take this opportunity to welcome our latest volunteers:
Felice Drew has been enthusiastically helping with pick-ups, temporary storage and deliveries to the warehouse since last fall. Felice has also collected supplies for the rescue home in Cambodia described in the February blog post.
Cathy Dufour also joined us late last fall. A nursing instructor at Heritage College in Gatineau, Cathy regularly accepts supplies for use in her teaching. She also educates the warehouse rats on knowing what they’re holding and how it can be used. Thank you Cathy!
Heather Forbes is now our central-east Ottawa volunteer (Main St./Queensway area) for pick-ups, drop-offs and storage.
Gerry Hogan has come on board to assist with pick-ups, drop-offs and deliveries. Ms. Hogan lives in the west end and has years of humanitarian volunteering experience through her Unitarian Church. Gerry recently delivered a NJT suitcase to Mexico.
A very special thanks to Appletree for all your donations. Carefor – thank you for your donations and the many referrals we get each week. Welcome to the Hospice at May Court; Jacques met with the executive director a week ago and he’s very keen to support NJT-Ottawa.
Sad news (for us) – we lost Peter again… he’s gone back home to Havana to see his darling baby girl.
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