Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has launched a new website in time for the holiday season that allows the purchase of much-needed humanitarian relief items to support international aid workers.
Taking an inventive approach, the website uses the style of online shopping sites while at the same time educating visitors about crucial humanitarian efforts, and making it easy for donors to give.
Items for “sale” include a wide variety of supplies, medicines, and equipment that aid workers use in the field every day.
“The MSF warehouse offers concrete examples and actual costs of the resources that are needed by MSF teams to deliver medical care in close to 70 countries where people are at risk. By making a symbolic purchase through the site, visitors can support work that saves lives,” the organization said in a press release.
The first country in which the humanitarian organization is using this approach is Canada.
“It is just a Canada initiative for the moment,” says MSF Canada’s Fundraising Manager Conan MacLean, adding however that other MSF offices can adopt the same method.
“We look forward to seeing how the concept can be used internationally.”
MacLean says that while anyone from around the globe can make a charitable purchase through the MSF Canada warehouse, “it’s good if other countries want to set it up so that their citizens can get a tax receipt.”
Items available range from first aid kits and field tents to baby scales, water tank kits, and even Toyota Land Cruisers. There’s an option to “buy” shares in an item or donate the full cost of the item outright.
Cholera kits, currently in high demand in Haiti, come with a share price of $30, or $18,750 for a full kit. Each kit provides medicines, rehydration salts, IVs, and other supplies that can treat 625 patients.
Malaria is the most lethal disease for children under the age of 5 in Sub Saharan Africa, particularly in wet areas where people cannot afford protective mosquito nets. A $100 share buys a new fixed-dose combination drug that includes artemisinin, a Chinese herb. The artemisinin combination works quickly to combat the illness.
Ready To Use Therapeutic Food costs $20 for 55 packages. Formulated in a peanut-milk paste “that children find tasty and easy to eat,” the nutritional paste can cure up to 90 percent of children of suffering from malnutrition in which there are no medical complications, according to the website. In 2009, MSF treated over 170,000 children in 34 countries for malnutrition, mostly in Sub Saharan Africa and Asia.
MacLean says visits to the site are up since it launched on Nov. 15, and he expects more traffic the closer it gets to Christmas.
“As we approach the holiday season, we’re hoping it will have some appeal for those looking for alternative gift ideas as well as supporters who are interested in seeing the ways in which their support translates into real items that we use in the field.”
The warehouse also features videos, photos, and blogs from aid workers that provide firsthand accounts of the importance items play in MSF’s aid work.
MSF was established nearly 40 years ago by a small group of doctors and journalists to find a way of responding quickly and effectively to public emergencies. Today MSF operates as an international aid organization, providing medical support to areas affected by natural disasters, warfare, and famine.
For more information visit www.msfwarehouse.ca .
Taking an inventive approach, the website uses the style of online shopping sites while at the same time educating visitors about crucial humanitarian efforts, and making it easy for donors to give.
Items for “sale” include a wide variety of supplies, medicines, and equipment that aid workers use in the field every day.
“The MSF warehouse offers concrete examples and actual costs of the resources that are needed by MSF teams to deliver medical care in close to 70 countries where people are at risk. By making a symbolic purchase through the site, visitors can support work that saves lives,” the organization said in a press release.
The first country in which the humanitarian organization is using this approach is Canada.
“It is just a Canada initiative for the moment,” says MSF Canada’s Fundraising Manager Conan MacLean, adding however that other MSF offices can adopt the same method.
“We look forward to seeing how the concept can be used internationally.”
MacLean says that while anyone from around the globe can make a charitable purchase through the MSF Canada warehouse, “it’s good if other countries want to set it up so that their citizens can get a tax receipt.”
Items available range from first aid kits and field tents to baby scales, water tank kits, and even Toyota Land Cruisers. There’s an option to “buy” shares in an item or donate the full cost of the item outright.
Cholera kits, currently in high demand in Haiti, come with a share price of $30, or $18,750 for a full kit. Each kit provides medicines, rehydration salts, IVs, and other supplies that can treat 625 patients.
Malaria is the most lethal disease for children under the age of 5 in Sub Saharan Africa, particularly in wet areas where people cannot afford protective mosquito nets. A $100 share buys a new fixed-dose combination drug that includes artemisinin, a Chinese herb. The artemisinin combination works quickly to combat the illness.
Ready To Use Therapeutic Food costs $20 for 55 packages. Formulated in a peanut-milk paste “that children find tasty and easy to eat,” the nutritional paste can cure up to 90 percent of children of suffering from malnutrition in which there are no medical complications, according to the website. In 2009, MSF treated over 170,000 children in 34 countries for malnutrition, mostly in Sub Saharan Africa and Asia.
MacLean says visits to the site are up since it launched on Nov. 15, and he expects more traffic the closer it gets to Christmas.
“As we approach the holiday season, we’re hoping it will have some appeal for those looking for alternative gift ideas as well as supporters who are interested in seeing the ways in which their support translates into real items that we use in the field.”
The warehouse also features videos, photos, and blogs from aid workers that provide firsthand accounts of the importance items play in MSF’s aid work.
MSF was established nearly 40 years ago by a small group of doctors and journalists to find a way of responding quickly and effectively to public emergencies. Today MSF operates as an international aid organization, providing medical support to areas affected by natural disasters, warfare, and famine.
For more information visit www.msfwarehouse.ca .
