We are both excited and grateful to share that we will soon be halfway to our 2021 goal of shipping six containers full of essential medical supplies into Cambodia! This year, our first shipment arrived in January, the second container unloaded on March 13, and our third container has already shipped out from the U.S. and is on its way. While Cambodia’s Covid-19 infection rates have been relatively low since the beginning of the pandemic, Covid numbers have tripled over the past few weeks and the first official death was recently reported making the availability of the medical supplies more critical than ever before.
This third container will be the fourteenth shipment of medical supplies to have arrived in Cambodia since we began this importing program. Because each container’s medical equipment contents are valued at over $400,000, the total value of these containers is well over $5 million.
When the containers arrive, we send them directly to the prime minister’s son for distribution of the medical supplies. Items such as hospital beds, wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and more are then taken to army headquarters. The military stores them in a warehouse where they are then distributed to Cambodian hospitals and clinics.
Each of these medical containers costs about $4,500 to ship, providing resources that help thousands of impoverished Cambodians. You can visit our Medical Supplies Project webpage to learn more about the impact these medical supply shipments have on Cambodians who wouldn’t otherwise receive medical care.