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The year was 1953, the Korean War was raging, in Detroit a housewife embarked on a
remarkable mission. Inspired by the plight of a single orphan that she saw on television,
Irene M Auberlin enlisted the help of her family and friends to collect food, clothing, baby
supplies and medicine to ship overseas.
Her original goal, to help one small orphan boy turned into a much larger mission, relieving
the pain and suffering of the entire orphanage filled with 400 hurting children.
She saw the conditions of the orphanage in Korea and she was appalled.
They had little bedding, little clothing, they didn't have cribs, didn't have food,
or even hygiene products.
What they did have was a guardian angel Mrs. Auberlin.
And within a short time the needs of that orphanage were being met by the open hearts
of stranger's 8,000 miles away. Under Mrs. Auberlin's watch and with the assistance of her
husband Lester the mission expanded. The World Medical Relief starting collecting
recycled medical and dental equipment, medical supplies and medicine to aid the thousands
of sick and poor people around the world. They were doing gods work as Mrs. A would say
by turning the sins of waste into the miracles of mercy.
And today the folks at World Medical Relief are still meeting the needs of the many.
Back in the past Mrs. Auberlin would take anything from anybody.
Over the years we have kind of refined that a little bit more and we specifically focus more
on medical equipment and medical supplies, basic human supplies and medicines.
And so over the years we have continued to ship containers.
And this would be a 40ft container going overseas and landing in the Philippines or
*** or in Honduras.
We deal with 6 different continents, 130 developing nations plus.
And in these containers you have up to $400,000 up to a million dollars worth of things.
Hospital beds, dialysis machines, incubators, all kinds of medical supplies as
simple as latex gloves and Band-Aids.
And I just recently got back from El Salvador and we visited a lot of the hospitals
there, a lot of the rural clinics and these were very very primitive and we saw what
the need is for the medical equipment and supplies.
For example the maternity ward we went to, which was just a interesting experience because
we could see, they dealt with about 20,000 births a year. And that is pretty significant.
And they didn't have enough equipment to maintain their systems; they didn't have
enough medical supplies. But it just brought home to us that how important it was
for people to gain access to something that we just throw away here.
And our goal is always to recycle and repurpose and see the end result of people using
this and how much it impacted their lives and made a difference.
It was such a great feeling. While the reach of World Medical Relief is vast, helping people
in other countries across the globe, they also do a great deal of work here, at home,
on a local level. We have a durable medical equipment program.
This program is so important. Let me give you an example, 18 years ago my mom was diagnosed
with congestive heart failure and diabetes. And she died at home through hospice. When she
died we didn't know what to do with the hospital bed, the walker, the bathchair, the
camode. We didn't know what to do with any of this stuff, so a lot of it just got thrown away.
Now that is criminal, World Medical Relief accepts those things and people here in the
local community now have a resource were they feel good, they can give something and it
did not go to waste with all of tat money that was spent on it.
And then we in return are able to help people in the local community gain access to
wheelchairs and walkers and hospital beds and other kinds of equipment that they cannot
afford and don't have insurance to pay for.
We expanded a little bit further and we provide basic medical supplies, liquid
nutrition, basic medical care needs like first aid kits and that sort of thing.
And we also help local clinics with basic medical supplies and also medical equipment.
And one last thing that we do, we serve about 80,000 people a year in homeless shelters by
providing blankets, hygiene kits, school kits, and sewing kits.
So these people have the opportunity which in return we believe will make them feel
better about themselves.
One of the programs that World Medical Relief is most proud of and the local residents are
encouraged to take advantage of is their prescription drug program.
This drug program is needed locally because for many people they do not have the
opportunity to go out to a Wal-Mart, Costco, and the box stores that are offering the
5-dollar prescription drug program.
They number 1 cant get their and not in every case do they have those drugs available in
a non generic format for the clients.
What we do at World Medical Relief, all of our supplies, all of our drugs are either
donated or acquired at a very low discount.
So as a result we can service and send those drugs out for $8.30 a month to each patient.
And that's in a mail order subscription structure.
It is very effective if you have a senior that is non-ambulatory; they have an
opportunity to get those drugs without leaving their home.
Were as working with some of those big box stores they don't necessarily have that
opportunity. Plus there is a community involvement that exists with
World Medical Relief, that doesn't nesscesarily exist with a retail store because their
objective is to sell things, they are a for profit entity.
So we have senior services, there is a direct tie in with 211, so if somebody needs a
prescription drug and they don't know where to call, they can call 211 and they will get
referred to us.