Warehouse for Surplus is Complete
Mano a Mano volunteer Ray W. is currently in Bolivia, and has been sending updates during his time there. Much of the work over the past few weeks has been dedicated to unloading the 99,000 pounds of supplies that recently arrived in Cochabamba.
As of today the warehouse is finished…except for glass windows at a later date. I still am amazed….if I can say it one more time….at the skill of Mano a Mano staff. Bars on windows, to keep out would be intruders, were all handmade with raw steel and welding torch on site in three days….try to get that back home these days…giggle.. But equally amazing are the other staff and volunteers. I’ve been matching their energy and hours but I’m not sure I could keep it up for the long haul. Yesterday for example the volunteers worked their day jobs and then came into Mano a Mano to work from 7 – 10:30pm…getting home by 11pm. Yesterday was somewhere around a 14 hour day for me and today 10 hours by the time I rolled back into my living space. And this has been going on for 2 weeks now.
But check out the new warehouse space. I can’t imagine how they sorted without all the tables that came along with this shipment! Here’s a big thumbs up to all the Bolivian Mano a Mano staff and volunteers!!!
Pictures From the Warehouse – Organizing Supplies
What Does Mano a Mano Do With All of These Supplies?
In our Minnesota office, Mano a Mano volunteers collect surplus supplies from hospitals and other organizations to ship to Bolivia. Once supplies arrive in Cochabamba, they are sorted and organized (the process currently underway over the past few weeks) in preparation for distribution all across Bolivia – to Mano a Mano projects, other organizations, and individual Bolivians in need. Most of these supplies go to our network of 155 clinic projects throughout Bolivia, overseen by our counterpart organization Mano a Mano Bolivia, whose office is on the same plot of land as this warehouse (3 of Mano a Mano’s 4 counterpart organizations in Cochabamba are located on the same site; the only one that is not there is Mano a Mano Aviation which has a hangar at the airport).
To distribute to other organizations, Mano a Mano periodically hosts distribution events, where other organizations are invited to come to Mano a Mano’s site and pick up supplies; the last distribution event was in November 2015 when over 40,000 pounds of supplies were distributed (check out pictures from the distribution here).
