Medical Bridges’ first annual Hand-Carried Feedback Workshop!
Despite the cold, post-snow weather, the workshop went forward as planned and what a success it was! Sign-in began at 9 am with coffee, snacks, and mingling. By 9:30, the twenty-two guests representing ten organizations settled into their seats. Each guest received a packet containing information presented during the workshop, as well as information about upcoming events and how they can get more involved with Medical Bridges.
Robert Lampkin, Collaborative Partnership Manager, gave an enthusiastic welcome and tested everyone’s early-morning aptitude with a fun trivia challenge (“UNICEF was founded on this day, December 11, of what year?”; “Name two international Goodwill Ambassadors of UNICEF”). Ten winners each received a fair trade ornament from Ten Thousand Villages, each handcrafted by artisans in various developing countries.
Cecilia Ethun, Associate Logistics Partner, gave a brief presentation of the logistics operations from 2008, including a detailed look at the monthly changes in distribution within each region, and an overview of the capacity in which our supplies are used, the types of organizations that transport the supplies, and the types of institutions that receive them.
The guests were then taken on a brief tour of the warehouse, given by Eduardo Rivoldi, Logistics Manager, and had the opportunity to see where all the magic happens in putting together each hand-carried shipment and talk to the man in charge—Norm Beris.
The third segment of the morning opened with a discussion by Medical Bridges board member, Mike Weill, of our logistics fees and their importance to the vitality of our organization. Eduardo then presented the new paper-less application system, talked about its benefits, and how to access it. Next, each table partook in a round-table discussion, facilitated by one of our regular volunteers, concerning the utility and practicality of our “basic health care packs”. The idea behind these is to offer a basic clinical pack, basic medicine pack, and a basic surgical pack that would allow medical and non-medical travelers to create a packing list with greater ease.
We were delighted to have Allison Lipper, a graduate student at Rice, present the “Diagnostic Lab-in-a-backpack”, developed by Rice University’s Beyond Traditional Borders and packed with supplies provided by Medical Bridges! The backpack is easily transportable and contains basic diagnostic material and tools that are specially designed to run on solar power and rechargeable batteries. For more information about the backpack, click here.
We wrapped the morning up with a delicious Salvadorian lunch.
Thank you, all who attended our very first Hand-Carried Feedback Workshop!
Your comments and suggestions were great and are an invaluable service to our organization!
We can’t wait for next year’s workshop—hope to see you there!
If you were not able to attend and would like more information about the information covered at the workshop, please contact Cecilia Ethun at 713-748-8131 or email at Cecilia.ethun@medicalbridges.org.
