Now that we're a little over one month into the New Year we wanted to take a look back on all that MedPLUS accomplished in the past year. In 2014 MedPLUS Connect celebrated five years of incorporation and sending shipments of valuable medical supplies! We sent our first container in 2008 and became fully incorporated in 2009. Our story was featured in the Carolina Alumni Review (as our three founders are all UNC Chapel Hill alumni) and it was exciting to look back on all MedPLUS has accomplished since then. For a full look back on MedPLUS Connect's five years in action, follow this link to our News and Updates page. You can also see our blog post about our magazine article here.
Page 1 of our article in the Carolina Alumni Review
In 2014 the Nutrition center also treated 50 new patients and rehabilitated 53 children! We also received a generous donation of a laptop and digital camera for the nutrition center. These items have already greatly improved the record keeping and documentation of each patient's progress, enabling the nutrition center to better help children recover from the effects of malnutrition.
Ms. Gaa using the donated laptop computer
In addition, the nutrition center also held a training on the Management of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) for Lawra District Hospital staff in April of this past year. This training was attended by 11 members from the various units of the Lawra District Hospital, including 9 nurses, a midwife and a medical assistant. They were instructed on the impact of malnutrition in children, how to identify and manage a child with malnutrition in addition to other medical conditions, how to prepare therapeutic food, and how to educate mothers on proper nutrition at home.
Training at the Lawra Nutrition Center
In 2014 we also raised enough funds on Global Giving to be ready to purchase the first set of supplies and equipment for the cervical cancer screening and treatment program. We ended the year with $7,966.76 in donations for the program and are ready to purchase 1 diathermy machine, 1 cryotherapy set, 1 cryotherapy cylinder, 1 autoclave, 2 biopsy forceps, 10 tenaculums, 10 sponge forceps, and 25 speculums. We are so excited that the first stage of establishing the first cervical cancer screening and treatment program in the Upper West Region is underway and can't wait to report back on the progress soon!
Women at the Wa Regional Hospital
During the past year we also started participating in AmazonSmile, participated in our second Giving Tuesday, became Guidestar Certified, and attended a nonprofit conference in NYC. We also oversaw the distribution of the Upper East Regional container which held almost 16,000 pounds of medical supplies that were distributed to 51 different hospitals and health centers throughout the region!
2014 was an exciting year for MedPLUS and we look forward to what 2015 has in store!