• Font Size    

Most Popular Videos Featured On KDKA.com

Architect Wants To Save Mellon Arena
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

KD Country: Global Links

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   
Nov 4, 2009 6:52 pm US/Eastern

KD Country: Global Links

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Pittsburgh hospitals have the latest in medical supplies, while others in the Western Hemisphere lack the most basic needs.

A non-profit agency has worked for 20 years to balance that equation.

The agency sends cargo containers to Guatemala, filled to the ceiling with medical equipment and hospital furnishings.

Volunteers box up linen supplies from area hotels and outdated hospital supplies.

It's the 20th anniversary of Global Links.

Kathleen Hower is co-founder of the non-profit agency, which diverts used medical supplies from the landfill to developing countries in central and South America.

"We work with all the hospitals in the Pittsburgh area to recover materials that for one reason or another can't be put back to use in the hospitals," Kathleen Hower said.

Much of the medical equipment is very complex and yet some of the most basic supplies are the most difficult to come by.

Global Links recovered 200 tons of materials that would have otherwise been discarded in the last year.

Mothers and children are helped immeasurably by equipment that is outdated by American standards. In all, 1,500 volunteers come here each year to make sure they get what they need.

"When you hear of where the equipment goes and what it goes for, I mean it's going to some bad place that can really use it," Hower said.

For more information visit Global Link's Website.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Featured Slideshows On KDKA.com

You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

Dave Crawley's KD Country

Top News Stories

© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.