, the nation’s largest provider of donated medical equipment to developing countries, recently welcomed Vicente Fox, Mexico’s 55th president, to its distribution headquarters in Centennial.
Like many foreign leaders before him, Fox, who served as Mexico’s president from 2000 to 2006, stopped by to commend the work done by Project C.U.R.E. on behalf of his country, but he was also there to commemorate the nonprofit’s 70th, 53-foot-long cargo container of medical supplies donated to Mexico.
Project officials crowded around as Fox toured the 65,000-square-foot warehouse, surveying the sorted medical supplies, incubators, heart monitors, beds and everything in between, stacked from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. The 70th container slated for Mexico was stocked with $900,000 in supplies.
“It’s impressive,” Fox said. “I’m really surprised by the great job that is being done here, not only because of the donations that reach people in need, but because of the professional management that optimizes costs and operations.”
Fox discussed cost-saving partnerships involving Project C.U.R.E. and , a foundation he co-created to advocate for Mexicans living in extreme poverty.
“We should not waste one cent in processing the transfer of these supplies to the people that need to receive it,” he said. “The idea is for (Vamos México) to take the last mile of delivery, at first. (In the long run) it will save costs to (Project C.U.R.E.) when (we) can pick up the product and assume the costs of moving it to Mexico.”
, Project C.U.R.E. has collected and sent leftover and unused medical supplies generated by U.S. hospitals, urgent care centers and private medical practices to medical centers in 134 countries from Armenia to Zambia.
“On average, the countries that we serve have about 50 to 60 percent of their population making only $1 (per) day,” said Jan Mazotti, spokeswoman for Project C.U.R.E. “We’ve assessed more than 120 facilities in Mexico, and we’ve worked actively in 22 states there. We’re very active in Mexico: It’s our largest market.”
The containers have everything from biomedical equipment to gloves and sutures inside. Most of the containers are stuffed tight with supplies worth about $400,000.
“We don’t go into a country unless we’re invited,” Mazotti said. “Usually, a government, a nonprofit entity or a church will contact us and invite us to come in and do a needs assessment.”
The nonprofit coordinates with medical centers around the world. It sends volunteers to each foreign partner to assess its medical supply needs.
“They go room to room at these hospitals and look at everything from power sources to door width,” she said. “For example, if a hospital says they need an MRI machine, but they don’t have electricity or beds, then what they really need is more basic. We work through … what their true needs are in every single room in every (foreign) hospital.”
The Centennial-based donation center collects items from virtually every major medical facility in the Denver metro area. There are five other Project C.U.R.E. distribution centers — in Phoenix, Nashville, Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston.
“We have these big wooden boxes that sit in the hospital basements where all the medical materials are, and then nurses or techs fill them up,” said Kelyn Anker, Project C.U.R.E. operations director of the Centennial warehouse. “We make sure that everything is working correctly, that it’s sterile if it’s supposed to be sterile, and check everything for effectiveness.”
Donated materials include items a hospital is replacing, like outdated technology and things that were never used but would otherwise be thrown away because of U.S. medical safety standards. For example, sometimes all the little tools that a surgeon needs for a specific procedure come prepackaged. Once a package like that is opened, everything has to be discarded, even if it was never used. That’s where Project C.U.R.E. comes in.
“It’s all their excess, or it’s things they’ve replaced like beds or machinery,” Anker said. “We take perfectly good materials that they can’t use and then we get them where they need to go.”
In 2016, a total of 180 containers valued at $67.3 million were sent from the six U.S. facilities. The Centennial facility pumped out 61 of those containers. Almost 25,000 volunteers from around the country provided 165,000 hours of work to Project C.U.R.E. in 2016.
Mazotti said the nonprofit is on track to send 200 containers to various countries in 2018.
“Our goal in the next year is to get our 100th container into Mexico,” Mazotti said. “We’re hoping to roll out 30 containers to Mexico in a year, which is very ambitious.”
But not ambitious enough to Fox.
“We want to make sure that we reach not just 100 by next year, but 120,” he said. “These partnerships that we’re discussing will help facilitate that goal.”
Next up, Project C.U.R.E. will host Esther Lungu, the first lady of Zambia, for its First Ladies Luncheon, which begins at 11 a.m. Sept. 25 at The Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center.