PROGRAMS: Overview • Medical Supplies • Clinics • Environmental Health & Services • Youth

Getting and Shipping Medical Supplies

Mano a Mano's Twin Cities volunteers seek donations of surplus medical supplies and equipment from health care providers and suppliers in Minnesota. The supplies are new items, usually in their original packaging, that become surplus for varied reasons: they may have been misrouted, overstocked, replaced by supplies from new vendors or delivered in damaged boxes. Volunteers pick up these items, then pack and prepare them for shipment.

Since its inception, Mano a Mano's 150 Minnesota volunteers have contributed over 61,000 hours collecting more than two million pounds of medical supplies and equipment and preparing them for shipment to its counterpart organization, Mano a Mano - Bolivia, located in the country's third largest city of Cochabamba.

In 1995, Mano a Mano had the good fortune to be approved by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Denton Program for no-cost, space-available transportation of its cargo via military transport during routine Reservist training missions. As a result, Mano a Mano shipments increased from 500 pounds in 1994 to 200,000 pounds by 2003.

This medical inventory fills requests from non-profit health care programs that do not have funds to purchase them.  Requests for this assistance have increased dramatically every year.