- Pictorial of the final loading and departure of container
- The entire story about our Malawi Aid Project
November 3, 1998
It's finally on its way. The 40 foot container with tons of humanitarian aid is on its way to Malawi to provide vital aid for two clinics, Malakia Clinic in the capital city of Lilongwe run by United Church of God member Gladstone and Alice Chonde and the other is Kasambala Medical Center in the northern part of the country directed by Dr. Trywell Nyirongo. This project was conceived exactly two years ago and we have finally completed on our part.
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The routing of this container is from St. Paul, Minnesota to Chicago and Norfolk, Virginia by rail. From Norfolk it will be loaded on a ship and will go to Europe, the Mediterranean, Suez Canal down the east coast of Africa. It will be unloaded in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania from which it will be trucked across Tanzania to northern Malawi. From there it will continue down to Lilongwe. From Kasambala Clinic in the north trucks will take their share of the aid to remote Nchenichena where Dr. Nyiorongo's clinic is located.
This project was a team effort involving Compassion Humanitarain Relief operated by Mary Sandmann who is helping us ship to containers to Ukraine. Patty Hahn-Carlson has supervised the aid to Kasambala Clinic and I have overseen the aid to Malakia Clinic.
Patty has traveled to southern Africa on several occasions and works directly with Kasambala Clinic.
I cannot thank enough all the efforts of people all over the United States and around the world who have pitched in to make this shipment possible. Forgive me if I inadvertently leave someone out, but here are just some of the contributions to the Malakia Clinic:
- Collection of nearly one ton of blankets in Northwest US -- Dyanne Dick
- Pentium II computer and peripherals-- Tucson UCG and Dale and Todd Booth
- Heavy duty metal desks and white board -- Tom and Marlene Karestes of Eau Claire, Wisconsin
- Copier, computer, office supplies -- Willis and Brenda Hogg of Dallas, Texas
- One ton of flour -- Lonnie Gjesvold and Bay City Milling in Minneapolis
- Patient use of storage facilities at 540 Properties in St. Paul -- Jerry Butler
- Coordination of medicine and food purchases and container procurement-- Mary Sandmann, Compassion Humanitarian Relief
- One and a half tons tons of iodized salt -- Morton Salt of St. Paul, Minnesota
- More blankets from Phoenix, Kansas and West Palm Beach, Florida
- IBM Selectric typewriters -- St. Paul UCG
- Lion's Club for several thousand pair of eye glasses
- Steve Grabowski of UCG Laramie, Wyoming for eyeglass donations
- Linda Benton of Illinois for computer and printer donation
- Wheel chair and walkers -- Colleen Erickson
- Dale and Dona Fehr of NE Minneapolis who stored boxes and boxes shipped from all over the United States in their home and garage.
- Cash donations to purchase
3 palettes rice
9 cases of pasta
150 gallons of cooking oil
Dry Soup mix
Medical supplies
Over the counter medicines
Assorted antiobiotics and other prescription medicines (shipped separately) - The US Department of Defense that is paying for shipping the container
- Bill Jahns and Salt Lake City UCG who have been making regular medical shipments to Malakia Clinic
- Sarah Osborn for acting as treasurer
- Mike Snyder for media promotions
- FAX machine from David Blue and UCG Boise, Idaho
- and more....
Finally I want to thank Patty Hahn-Carlson and all the volunteers from Unity Unitarian Church who helped pack the container October 31 and November 1st. It was no small job and greatly satisfying when it was done.
Victor Kubik
