shipment number three - 60 more beds for Haiti!

While Hurricane Tomas drenched Haiti with sheets of rain and heavy winds on Friday November 5, the 100 Beds team was creating a stir of our own as we prepared our third shipment of beds for our partners in Milot.

Two storage containers full of hospital bed frames and a shipping container at Lexington Health Care Center

The exciting day began with the collection of 60 hospital bed frames generously donated by the Lexington Health Care Center, a Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Lexington, Massachusetts. Thanks to the logistical help of Mission and Relief, our team was able to load two 40 foot shipping containers with 60 frames. One container was filled completely with 45 frames and is being shipped directly to Haiti from Massachusetts. A second container was packed with the balance of 15 bed frames, before it was driven to make a second pick up, in New Jersey.

transloading bed frames into the shipping container

Our friends and partners at Medical Angels, an organization that collects medical equipment and caregiver supplies to redistribute them to people and organizations in need, very charitably provided the complimenting 60 hospital bed mattresses. Volunteers from the 100 Beds team connected at the Medical Angels facilities in Hackensack, New Jersey to help load these mattresses and additional medical supplies and equipment into the second container, which will ship to Haiti from New Jersey this week.

volunteers helped load supplies into the shipping container before it was sealed for shipment to Haiti

Thanks to the generous support from Medical Angels, we were ultimately able to send Hôpital Sacré Coeur far more than 60 beds. Our shipment of donated medical supplies included bedside tables, reclining medical chairs, wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, diapers, blankets, liquid food & protein drinks, rehydration supplements, gauze, latex gloves, dressings, respirator systems, lancets, orthopedic bandages, catheters, tracheotomy care supplies, anti-diarrheal drugs, vitamins, and batteries.

in addition to 60 beds, our shipment included medical equipment and supplies

Our biggest thanks and utmost appreciation is extended to both the Lexington Health Care Center and to Medical Angels, whose philanthropic donations made this all possible. Likewise, this exciting collaborative effort couldn't have happened without the invaluable logistical guidance from Mission and Relief and the ongoing support and encouragement from the friends and fans of the 100 Beds for Haiti campaign. We thank you so very much for your enduring commitment to supporting Haiti's healthy recovery and look forward to sharing updates with you about the arrival of these beds to Hôpital Sacré Coeur.

some members of the 100 Beds team back in NYC celebrating after the move

If you would like to view more photos from our exciting day, please visit our flickr site here.

updates: many movements!

On the heals of a cholera outbreak that left nearly 450 people dead and more than 6500 hospitalized, Haitians are preparing for the arrival of yet another threatening disaster, Tropical Storm Tomas. Yet not all things headed to Haiti are so ominous! After two months of organizing offers and coordinating partners across the northeast of the US, we are very excited to be updating you from Boston with news that our next donation of beds for Haiti is ready!

Some of us from the 100 Beds team have traveled to help pack up hospital bed frames in Massachusetts. With help from logisticians in Pennsylvania and volunteers from New York, these frames will be matched with mattresses in New Jersey, and then shipped to our partners in the Caribbean on a shipping line from the Mediterranean!

On the eve of our next major shipment of beds to Hôpital Sacré Coeur in Milot, Haiti, we are incredibly grateful for the support and encouragement received from friends and collaborators across the country and around the world. Your financial generosity, and the incredible commitments of volunteers near and far, have made this amazing process possible and it’s really quite moving to see all of these efforts coming together.

It is our hope that everything goes well with our packing and shipping tomorrow, and we look forward to sharing pictures and stories from this next step with you soon. Keep your fingers crossed for us and for our friends and partners in Haiti, with wishes that they weather the upcoming storm, and await our next shipment of beds, with resilience.