Medical Support Departs for 15 Countries, U.S. Safety Net Facilities Get a Resilient Power Boost

Over the past 7 days, Direct Relief has delivered 332 shipments of requested medical aid to 44 U.S. states and territories and 15 countries worldwide. The shipments contained 6.6M defined daily doses of medication.

Medications shipped this week included rare disease therapies, diabetes management medications, chronic disease treatments, and more.

Expanding Resilient Power for U.S. Healthcare Safety Net

This week, Direct Relief announced a new $10 million commitment to bring clean, resilient backup power to more facilities that serve low-income people in medically underserved areas across the United States.

Extreme weather events and emergency situations create enhanced health risks for people who rely on nonprofit health facilities. Such events create new health risks and the need for expanded health services, even as the availability of services is likely to be severely reduced or lost due to power outages.

Direct Relief's Power for Health Initiative provides grant funding to health clinics that serve vulnerable and underserved patient populations to cover the design, installation, operation, and maintenance of solar power and battery storage microgrids. The nonprofit clinics and health centers own the systems and derive 100% of the benefits - the resiliency benefits coming from batteries that provide power in the event of an outage, and the immediate and recurring financial benefits of reduced utility costs coming from generating their own electricity through the solar panels.

More Power for Health projects continue to come online at nonprofit clinics and health centers nationwide, with 20 completed projects in Puerto Rico, Louisiana, North Carolina, and California and dozens in the design and construction pipeline - including in Texas and Florida. The latest facilities where Direct Relief-funded resilient power systems have been completed include Harmony Health Medical Clinic (Marysville, CA), in an area prone to explosive wildfires, and Goshen Medical Center (Tabor City, NC), at high risk of hurricanes.

Read more.

Most Powerful Storm in a Decade, Super Typhoon Yagi Strikes China

A powerful super typhoon struck southern China on Friday, bringing wind speeds of more than 138 miles per hour to the island of Hainan. Super Typhoon Yagi made landfall on the island located south of mainland China, and about 400,000 residents had been evacuated to higher ground ahead of the storm, the strongest recorded in the region since a 2014 storm that killed 46 people.

The storm is expected to cause major damage in Hainan and China's most populous province, Guangdong. Yagi's path caused impacts in the Phillippines earlier this week.

Direct Relief is monitoring the storm and its impact and will respond to the region as needed.

Medical Support Arrives for Ukrainian Hospitals

Relief for Ukraine continues, and this week a Direct Relief shipment arrived for distribution in Mykolaiv, located in southern Ukraine. Medicines for treatment of epilepsy, medications for heart conditions, wound dressings and surgical supplies and IV fluids were all included, and will be distributed by the organization Ukrainian Soul to hospitals and emergency medical centers in the region.

Since February 2022, Direct Relief has provided more than $1.3 billion in support to Ukraine and refugees in surrounding countries.

Operational Snapshot

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 302 shipments containing 179,948 doses of medication during the past seven days to organizations, including the following:

AROUND THE WORLD

Globally, Direct Relief shipped over 6.5M defined daily doses of medication totaling 66,227lbs., to countries including the following:

YEAR TO DATE

Since January 1, 2024, Direct Relief has delivered 17K shipments to 2,125 partner organizations in 54 US states and territories and 85 countries. These shipments contained 316.0M defined daily doses of medication valued at $1.0B (wholesale) and totaled 3.8M lbs.

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