Over the past seven days, Direct Relief delivered 511 shipments of requested medical aid to 44 U.S. states and territories and 11 countries worldwide, including Ukraine.

The shipments contained 16.6 million defined daily doses of medication, including N-95 masks, mental health medications, antibiotics, chronic disease medications, nutritional products, insulin, and cancer treatments.

Ukraine Response to Date

Since February 24, Direct Relief has provided medical aid weighing more than 400 tons in weight, with more on the way.

Direct Relief has been responding directly to specific medical requests from Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, as well as NGOs and local organizations supporting health care in Ukraine. From acute trauma care supplies like tourniquets and blood clotting agents to chronic disease management medications, including insulin, to specialty therapies for cancers, Direct Relief has provided a host of medical materiel for care during the conflict.

IV fluids, donated by Baxter International, arrived in Kharkiv, Ukraine, this week to support medical care in northeastern Ukraine. The shipment was deployed from the company’s facilities in Europe and is the first of several donations, including large shipments en route to support patients managing kidney conditions in Ukraine.

This week, TAPS-Ukraine in Dnipro received an emergency field hospital, donated by the State of California Office of Emergency Services and transported by Direct Relief. The hospital kit, which contains 50 beds, trauma care and oxygen supplies and more, has since been deployed to frontline areas of the conflict needing medical support.

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In the News

• Search and rescue in Ukraine – Santa Barbara News-Press: “The recent mission to Ukraine was entirely composed of volunteer firefighters and was not funded by the city or county of Santa Barbara. Joint Project Guardian is a nonprofit composed of volunteer firefighters. When firefighters arrived in Ukraine, they were met by supplies donated from Direct Relief and fire departments across the country who donated firefighting gear and search-and-rescue equipment.”

• Ray Ford: Wildfire in Goleta Foothills Highlights Message of Preparedness at Weekend Exposition – Noozhawk: “The Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council’s weekend event, held at Direct Relief in Goleta, was designed especially with this in mind. The goal was a strategic one: create an annual event to bring the community and fire-related agencies together, build a partnership for working together to create a fire-resilient community, and provide guidance for those who would like to be involved.“
• Vanguard Charitable survey: More than 1 in 3 American donors gave half or more of their charitable contributions to disaster relief efforts in the last year – PR Newswire:  “More than 1 in 3 (37%) American donors (defined as those who donated to charity in the past 12 months) gave half or more of their charitable contributions to disaster relief efforts in the last year, such as the Ukraine humanitarian crisis, COVID-19 relief, and relief in the wake of natural disasters like wildfires or other crises.“

WORLDWIDE

This week, outside the U.S., Direct Relief shipped more than 14.9 million defined daily doses of medication.

Countries that received medical aid over the past week included:

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 487 shipments containing 1.7 million doses of medications over the past week to organizations, including the following:

Bolstering Puerto Rico’s Emergency Services

Puerto Rico’s First Response Emergency Medical Services, or FREMS, is a group of first responders donating their time (and often their resources) to help those involved in car accidents, traumatic injuries, fires, floods, and other emergencies.

To expand their emergency response capacity in Puerto Rico, Direct Relief, as part of AbbVie’s $50 million donation, awarded a $350,000 grant to FREMS to purchase a new rescue unit and medical equipment such as complex cardiac monitors. The full story can be found here.

YEAR TO DATE

Since January 1, 2022, Direct Relief has delivered 7,298 shipments to 1,491 healthcare organizations in 51 U.S. states and territories and 75 countries.

These shipments contained 221.4 million defined daily doses of medication valued at $795.8 million (wholesale) and weighing 8 million lbs.