FFP Responds to Emergency Request for Blood Bags

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Nov. 24, 2009) — Food For The Poor is responding today to an urgent request from the Minister of Health in Jamaica for blood bags at the National Transfusion Centre – Blood Bank in Kingston, Jamaica.

“We are requesting your urgent intervention. Our present situation is that we are out of blood bags and that has placed the entire health sector at risk,” Minister of Health Rudyard Spencer wrote in his letter to Food For The Poor. “We are asking that you assist us by whatever means are available to you.”

The Christian relief agency Food For The Poor, working with Americares, is air-shipping more than seven pallets of three different kinds of blood bags to the health ministry. The bags will arrive in Jamaica today.

“We are happy to assist Jamaica by providing supplies to ensure a safe and reliable blood supply for the sick,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “Providing medical care is a tremendous part of our mission to the poor in that country.”

Earlier this month, a group of volunteers and staff returned from a medical mission trip to the urban and rural areas of Jamaica where they set up stations in established clinics and treated almost 300 people over three days.

Food For The Poor, Florida’s largest charity and the largest international relief and development organization in the United States, serves the poor of the Caribbean, Latin America and the U.S. Food For The Poor provides food, emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, basic housing, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. More than 96 percent of all donations received in 2007 went to programs that help the poor.

Contact:
Kathy Skiper

Marketing/PR Manager
954-427-2222 x 6614
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