Hope for The Nation donates medical supplies to Public Health Ministry

The charitable organisation Hope for The Nation Foundation on Wednesday donated some million in medical supplies to the Regional Health Services (RHS) Department of the Public Health Ministry.

The supplies included examination gloves, identification wristbands – mother/infant, convertor bouffant caps, foam pitchers, post- partum kits, gauges, disposable nasal masks, and ICU medical 20-drop administration sets.
Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence lauded the local organisation for the medical supplies. “While the Government of Guyana continues to prioritise and mandate health care in its budgetary allocation, the donation from the Foundation will make a difference in the quality of health care provided to the people,” the Minister is quoted as saying in a statement from the Ministry.
“This is the type of partnership that the Ministry looks forward to with NGOs and other kind-hearted persons because not only Guyanese come to give back, but other persons come to assist us in one way or the other. It is these gestures that help us to add steps to the ones that have been outlined to us through the budgetary process. This helps to take us a little further every time,” Lawrence said.
She said the multimillion-dollar gift would aid the Ministry in bridging the gaps in service delivery.
“It is these gestures that help us to see our holes as reachable. I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the staff of the Ministry of Public Health, but more so on behalf of the doctors and the nurses and the supportive staff who will feel very happy to ensure that they have lots of equipment and supplies available to them, so that they can be able to carry out their functions,” the Minister said.
The Minister thanked Otello Perreira, Secretary of the Foundation with strong global ties, for reaching out to the Public Health Ministry, noting that the organisation was happy to be a ‘benefactor’ of such items.
Perreira explained that the Foundation was focused on fighting poverty, hunger and diseases, hence collaborations with the Government Ministries and other agencies were vital.
RHS Director, Dr Kay Shako, in an invited comment, said the supplies would be distributed to help alleviate problems in the most problematic areas, citing that the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), the country’s sole referral hospital, which is also a self-operating entity.
“The items will be distributed accordingly to the Suddie Regional Hospital, Region Two; West Demerara Hospital, Region Three and the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, Region Four,” Dr Shako said.
The Hope for the Nation Foundation is a registered non-profit organisation working closely with Cross International, headquartered in the USA, and other charitable global organisations. The Foundation was founded in 2016 by Orin Varasum, a Guyanese by birth who now resides in Florida, USA.