Please note: This is a stickied sponsored post, please scroll down for new post.
Our brothers from dozens of community organizations are out there on the front lines fighting.
They are putting their own lives at risk to help treat and protect our families and communities. There is a major shortage of medical supplies and PPE (Personal Protection Equipment), and so many volunteers desperately need our help.
100% of your donation will go directly to the purchase of Medical Supplies and PPE.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.
Organizations looking for supplies can contact supplies4lives at 212-913-0555 via phone or WhatsApp.
Just today Supplies 4 Lives facilitated the donation of 2,000 bottles of hand sanitizer to different Hatzalah Branches.
Leave a Reply
4 Comments On "Basic Medical Supplies And Gear Emergency Fund To Help Combat COVID-19 In Our Communities, Donate Now And Make A Difference!"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
I don’t understand this. Firstly, is it a supply shortage or money shortage? I thought supply, so provide supplier info to those who need. Secondly, why aren’t the medical organizations that actually need the supplies asking for help directly. (Instead, they have to read this ad to know who to contact to obtain supplies?) It seems like a competition.. medical organizations and these new “supply organizations” fighting to buy the same supplies. Not saying anyone is bad or that the supplies aren’t ending up in the right people, but just curious about the need for this middleman.
Mr. Reality,
If you would be involved with amy organizations, like any of the Hatzolah’s, you would have a different perspective. The reality is that the Hatzolah organizations are running through PPE rapidly. They are busy coordinating manpower coverage of ALS, BLS, Dispatch, keeping up to date on which hospitals are on divert, which are still receiving etc. They don’t have time to be calling suppliers to find availability of supplies, they don’t have funds to jump on any offer etc. It is overwhelming. This organization in my opinion is saving lives because it does the work that manynof the chesed organizations that have direct patient contact can’t be busy with at this time. It’s not always about the money. We need more people like these to step up if we are going to get through this.
Great questions, so as a volunteer, allow me to explain. The problem is not necessarily a money issue, any of these organizations can fundraise on their own to buy PPE. But having spoken directly with many organization directors, they’ve been having an EXTREMELY difficult experience purchasing the PPE they need and getting it ASAP. They are also extremely busy with the overwhelming calls and doing what they do best. One hatzalah director told me they don’t have any face shields for any of their members, and he spent weeks trying to source them. Another doing taharos had virtually no masks left, no coveralls, no faceshields, very few gloves. BH we were able to get them a week or 2 supply until we can restock them. In some cases we heard about – taharos weren’t getting done at all, hatzalah members are reluctant to go on calls, cancer patients don’t want to go to chemo appointments, and etc.
The first responders are the true heroes all year round, and exponentially more so during this virus. Within a few days, we have gotten in contact with almost every organization you can think of (and a lot more) and they have given us their requests. We maintain a google spreadsheet of all requests that we are trying to fill as fast as possible. So the real need for PPE exists, and I believe we are the only organized effort to help out all organizations in need.
Just on our sourcing team, we have about 20 volunteers that are very experienced in sourcing reliable PPE, each having purchased millions of dollars worth on their own. They all have financial interest in purchasing PPE for themselves, but they are giving it up and sacrificing their parnassah to support our cause. Personally speaking, I donated about 300 N95 masks, 2500 surgical masks, dozens of hand sanitizer and some other items I bought in February “just in case”. The sourcing teams experience ensures that we can get PPE quickly, but also only PPE that is reliable. The amount of unreliable/fake PPE being sold makes it even more difficult to purchase.
Another problem that we strive to solve is dealing with MOQs that are insanely high, getting the goods delivered ASAP, and having access to many forms of PPE. Yesterday we procured about 5k N95 masks between 4 different sources, and quickly distributing it before the 3 day Yom Tov. We also purchased 1k KN95 masks (reliable ones, good luck finding that), 3200 face shields, 80k+ gloves, Tyvek suits, and more.
If you asked any of the organizations, they would likely tell you that there was nothing to purchase yesterday, and they wouldn’t be lying. Thankfully our efforts have not only brought in the fund necessary, in many cases it has enlightened businessmen to donate or subsidize their supplies they provide to us. We think it is better if they sell us 10% of their supplies at cost than if they donated 20% of their profit. ArtNaturals – a frum company that manufactures hand sanitizers – after we contacted them has been begging us to give them more names of orgs that need sanitizer. They have delivered over 3k hand sanitizers and keep asking us for more.
That is just a glimpse of what is going on…what I can say is that all 40 volunteers in this organization are hoping that we can shut down operations tomorrow, but as long as there is a need we will be there to help.
Thank you to the community for allowing us to help first responders, so they can help us.
Keep up the great work!!