Feel Good Friday - Disaster Relief

The fires in Los Angels are still burning so we’re going to highlight another organization providing support to the impacted communities. Today, it’s Direct Relief.

Established in 1948 as the William Zimdin Foundation and headquartered in Santa Barbara, California, Direct Relief “provides appropriate and specifically requested medical resources to community-based institutions and organizations throughout the world and across the United States.”

Let’s start with the fires in California. Direct Relief has coordinated their response efforts with local and state agencies and health associations, deploying emergency response teams to deliver critically needed relief items. This includes 2.3 million N95 respirators and more than $100 million in medicines and medical supplies. This short video shows what Direct Relief is bringing to community centers in the region.

This is just one example of how Direct Relief responds to disasters around the world. Whether the event is caused by fires, hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons, disease outbreaks or is a humanitarian crisis as a result of war, the focus is on rapid mobilization. Direct Relief responds to specific requests from local partners and coordinates with other organizations and public agencies in the affected areas to ensure the most efficient use of resources.

They also provide healthcare for vulnerable communities. This work focuses on maternal health,  tribal health, health equity and disease prevention. Direct Relief supports locally-run facilities around the world providing essential health services, as well as supporting facilities in all 50 US states. You can explore this interactive global aid map to see the distribution of humanitarian aid and their international network of healthcare partners.

Since July, 2024, the beginning of fiscal year 2025, Direct Relief has provided over $98 million in medical aid, 763,780 pounds of medicine and supplies and more than 21 million doses of medicine to people in need.

If you’d like to help Direct Relief improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty and disaster, there are many ways you can support them. Volunteer in their Santa Barbara office, make a general donation to the organization, or a specific donation to respond to the California wildfires. You can also amplify their work on social media by following Direct Relief on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and subscribing to their YouTube channel. 

Feel Good Friday - Not Just Tourists

For those of you who like to do your traveling after school is back in session, it’s a great time to learn about Not Just Tourists, an organization that makes it easy for you to deliver humanitarian aid while on vacation.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Toronto, Not Just Tourists (NJT) has two big aspirations. To “change the way people travel and start the journey for ordinary tourists to become humanitarians” and to “prevent the waste of usable medical supplies and get them to those in most need.”

Here’s how it works. Hospitals, clinics, and medical suppliers donate materials to one of 29 NJT chapters across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. The supplies donated are typically gauze, bandages, surgical instruments, masks, gloves, antiseptics, IV kits, urinary supplies and birthing kits.

Volunteers host weekly packing parties to fill suitcases with supplies. Travelers like you and me check the list of 625 clinics around the world to see if there is one near our destination. If so, you fill out a form answering basic questions like your destination, how big of a suitcase you can take and what type of supplies you are comfortable transporting. The suitcase you are given will include a letter explaining that you are transporting the contents to a medical facility in the destination country. Once you deliver the suitcase and return from vacation, you bring back a copy of the letter that was signed by the medical professional who received the suitcase. Easy!

Since they began, Not Just Tourists has sent more than 10,000 suitcases with travelers who have delivered over 2,000,000 pounds of medical supplies. NJT operates without a budget and does not accept nor solicit financial donations. Getting medical supplies to clinics in need is made possible by the 3,000+ volunteers who donate their time.

If you want to help NJT prevent waste and turn tourists into humanitarians, there are many ways you can do so. Sign up to deliver a suitcase, donate medical supplies or a suitcase to put them in, volunteer to sort and pack supplies at a local chapter, or start a chapter if there’s not one near you. Of course you can also make sure more people know about Not Just Tourists by spreading the word on social media. Like the NJT Facebook page, follow them on Instagram and subscribe to their YouTube channel.