Sandy Doctors Recovery Project

In an unprecedented effort to offer immediate relief to medical professionals and their patients in Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay, New York, from the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy, the Afya Foundation and Global Links have partnered to launch the Sandy Doctors Recovery Project (www.sandydoctorsrecovery.org).The project’s goal is to replace damaged medical equipment, supplies and furniture across 30 clinics in the Southern Brooklyn communities. The effort is being conducted in cooperation with FEMA, Project Chernobyl, Aidmatrix, American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), Dr. Igor Branovan, American Forum of Russian Jewry and with support from New York City and State public officials.

The effort started when Eric Phillipson of FEMA and Dr. Igor Branovan of Project Chernobyl identified a sudden and dramatic decrease in availability of medical services to an ethnic community in Southern Brooklyn due to devastating flooding of physicians’ offices after Hurricane Sandy. They reached out to create a coalition of donor organizations to help resolve this critical problem. Having gained momentum over the last month, the Sandy Doctors Recovery Project (www.sandydoctorsrecovery.org) aims to restore these physicians’ vital services by providing much needed materials including examination tables, blood pressure units and physical therapy equipment to the medical practitioners who experienced extensive water damage and were forced to close their practices temporarily.

Southern Brooklyn plays host to a very large community of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who rely almost exclusively on the Russian-speaking physicians who practice in the area. Since the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy, this 200,000-strong population, of which many are elderly and disabled, has struggled with reduced access to medical providers. Both the Afya Foundation and Global Links specialize in medical surplus recovery, matching the needs of those in resource-poor countries or disaster recovery areas with surplus medical equipment, supplies and furnishings from US healthcare facilities. To date, both not-for-profits have provided more than $200 million worth of humanitarian aid to over 35 nations worldwide.

The Aidmatrix Foundation (www.aidmatrix.org), a 501c3 nonprofit, delivers the technology and programs used by FEMA and the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) to coordinate in-kind donations through the National Donations Management Network program and its SCM4Giving™ platform. The American Logistics Aid Network (www.alanaid.org), with its network touching thousands of organizations, helps to communicate and meet the needs of relief organizations during times of disaster. Together with Afya and Global Links, this team has formed a unique collaboration to get the medical equipment and supply needs of Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay doctors identified and fulfilled for this hard-hit community.

The Sandy Doctors Recovery Project offers a remarkable new model of private-public cooperation at the time of tremendous need after Hurricane Sandy. For more information and to donate please go to afyafoundation.org, globallinks.org.

Translate This Page

Translate this pageMicrosoft® Translator

Partner Organizations

Please select 'Medical' from the Category dropdown below and click Search.

As the project continues, check back for updates and stories to be featured here.

About the Afya Foundation

Inspired by the land, the people and the language, the name Afya is the Kiswahili word for good health. Founded in 2007, Afya has shipped more than 4 million pounds of medical and humanitarian supplies to more than 15 countries.

Afya has established a regional program to collect medical supplies from numerous venues around the New York area. The Afya Warehouse in Yonkers serves as a temporary supply storage, where the supplies are sorted, inspected, boxed and packed for shipment by volunteers.

The Afya Foundation depends on volunteer donations to sustain its mission to save and rehabilitate lives abroad.

To find out more about the Afya Foundation, check out our social networks here:

- Website: Afyafoundation.org

- Sortathon Website: Sortathon.afyafoundation.org

- Facebook: Facebook.com/TheAfyaFoundation

- Youtube: Youtube.com/user/AfyaFoundation

About Global Links

Global Links is a medical relief and development organization based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1989, Global Links is dedicated to improving health and promoting health equity in developing countries. Programs include the provision of high quality medical supplies and equipment that have been systematically recovered from U.S. hospitals. Dedicated volunteers help Global Links to maintain high quality standards and low costs. ][Since its founding, Global Links has provided more than $170 million in critical medical aid to developing nations, including Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Nicaragua.

To find out more about Global Links go to www.globallinks.org

About The Aidmatrix Foundation, Inc.

The Aidmatrix Foundation, Inc. builds and operates powerful technology hubs that support diverse stakeholder groups in their efforts to work together to solve the world's most challenging humanitarian crises. Our solutions enhance participation, amplify contributions, and accelerate results for humanitarian relief. More than 40,000 leading corporate, nonprofit and government partners leverage our solutions to mobilize more than $1.5 billion in aid annually, worldwide. The donated goods, money and services impact the lives of more than 65 million people. Aidmatrix is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA, with offices in Wisconsin, Washington D.C., Germany and India. www.aidmatrix.org

About ALAN

ALAN’s Mission is to engage the supply chain community to support and assist humanitarian relief efforts. American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) serves as a primary point of industry contact for disaster relief support. ALAN makes donation needs visible to the logistics industry and establishes an efficient process for providing the necessary goods and services through its web portal, www.alanaid.org. Needs for supply chain expertise, products, equipment, and services such as transportation, warehousing and material handling are matched with available donations.

About Project Chernobyl

Project Chernobyl is a 501c3 organization, funded by Federal government, NY State, NY City and private foundations. Project Chernobyl was established in 2004 to address the marked increase in thyroid cancer among hundreds of thousands of immigrants to New York from regions affected after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Project Chernobyl has conducted free screenings for thousands of patients at highest risk for thyroid cancer. Project Chernobyl has expanded its work to population residing in regions of New York State with significantly increased incidence of thyroid cancer, due to proximity of nuclear power stations and nuclear research facilities. Project Chernobyl's subsidiary Project 9/11 has been one of the key advocates for insurance coverage of cancers among 9/11 first responders resulting from toxic exposure during the clean up effort. Another subsidiary, Project 100, has focused on documenting increased cancer and chronic diseases among subway workers due to severe exposure to toxic and cancerogenic substances after 9/11. Dr. Igor Branovan is President and Founder of Project Chernobyl. www.projectchernobyl.org/