PORTLAND — Since its founding in 2009, Partners for World Health has dedicated itself to improving health care while reducing environmental impact, helping people lead healthy lives on a healthy planet.
“From the start, we operated on the simple premise of local effort, global impact,” said Elizabeth McLellan, CEO and founder of the Portland-based nonprofit.
It’s a premise that has lived out in the realities of the thousands upon thousands of people in need who have been helped, more than $35 million in supplies and medical equipment being shipped overseas in containers to troubled areas around the world, and over five million pounds of medical supplies being collected, repackaged, and distributed to hospitals instead of landfills.
“We believe challenges are opportunities for action,” said McLellan. “We collect medical supplies and equipment from healthcare facilities, manufacturers, and others and evaluate and repackage them, preparing these supplies and equipment for distribution to individuals, communities, and healthcare facilities in need. In the process, we are diverting materials from landfills, lowering healthcare costs, and providing resources to people in need.”
The organization has assisted medical professionals and patients from Uganda to Ukraine and beyond, including right here in Maine, where Norway Savings Bank renewed its longtime support of the organization with a $1,500 donation in April.
“Watching the growth of this wonderful organization and the commitment it has to its ideals and mission has been overwhelming and heartwarming,” said Dan Walsh, president and CEO of Norway Savings Bank. “Each year, they increase the number of lives saved, medical supplies delivered, environmental impact initiatives, and training programs and events for people in Maine and across the world.”
“Norway Savings Bank’s support is very important to us, and we are deeply moved by their commitment,” said McLellan. “Daily, we receive requests for medical supplies in Maine as many individuals find it hard to afford the items they need to live a full life. We have been able to provide these resources for little to no cost, never turning away someone in need.”
The idea for PWH began when McLellan (RN, MSN, MPH) was working as a nurse administrator at a trauma center in Saudi Arabia and, during a visit to Pakistan, observed a hospital that lacked even basic supplies or sinks.
“I thought, ‘Someday, when I go home, I’m going to do something about this,’” she said.
McLellan has done that and more. Starting with gathering discarded supplies at the Maine hospital where she was working, she rented a storage space within two years and moved more than 11,000 pounds of collected medical supplies and equipment, including wheelchairs, out of her home and into the space.
“It’s hard for me to believe we have grown so much with a presence all over New England and beyond,” she said.
With compassion and a staunch capacity to help, PWH might just be getting started. If you would like to help PWH through a gift of money, your time, or an equipment or supply donation, visit www.partnersforworldhealth.org/donate.
