| Journal Staff Writer |
Sunday, April 06, 2008
|
EDMONTON - Clipboard in hand, Jean Enarson stood in an Edmonton warehouse Saturday morning, carefully checking off items destined for Cuba.
One X-ray machine? Check. Two industrial-sized washers? Check. Stacks of beds? Check.
The items are part of a huge collection of medical equipment that a group of Albertans recovered from the East Central Health Region for needy Cuban hospitals. "In Cuba, a lot of the hospitals haven't had their equipment modernized since Castro (came to power in 1959)," said Al Bergsma, who helped organized the shipment. "We're putting equipment with lots of life left in it back in hospitals."
Last year, Bergsma, from Rocky Mountain House, noticed some area hospitals were updating their equipment and wondered what would happen to the old items. He spoke with Dale Enarson, a friend through the Evangelical Free Church of Canada, who had done several mission trips in Cuba.
The idea of sending second-hand medical equipment to the Caribbean country was soon born.
The Alberta group partnered with MEMO Cuba, a Ontario-based organization that has been shipping used medical supplies to developing countries since 2004. MEMO has co-ordinated with medical staff in Cuba to ensure the equipment is distributed to hospitals in need.
Last year, Bergsma wondered if his group could assemble enough supplies to fill even one shipping container.
Dale Enarson drove to hospitals in places such as Viking, Vermillion and Tofield to collect beds, incubators, walkers and IV poles. The hospitals were eager to give away thousands of kilograms of equipment that would have otherwise landed in a scrapyard.
In the end, the group managed to fill two full containers. "What started as a seed of a thought ended up as something much larger," Bergsma said.
Dale Enarson was a big player in the initiative until he fell gravely ill a few months ago. Days before his death, he lay in a hospital bed but was still taking phone calls about the project.
"He was passionate about this right to the end," said his widow, Jean Enarson.
This most recent shipment was done in his memory.
It costs about $12,500 to send a container from Edmonton to Cuba via Halifax. The money is collected through donations and fundraising. "This is God's work," said Jean Enarson. "We're all in it for the betterment of humanity."
azabjek@thejournal.canwest.com
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