Global Links & Volunteers Pack & Ship Medical Supplies To Cuba

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The people of Pittsburgh once again showed their generosity.

Much needed medical kits are now on their way to Cuba, thanks to some local students.

It was a busy day at the Global Links international headquarters in Green Tree.

About 30 volunteers - all students from the University of Pittsburgh - spent the day filling backpacks with medical supplies.

"We are hoping to pack up 1,240 backpacks, which by my calculations, these guys got to pack up about three back packs a minute," Matt Fuller said.

The volunteers set up a giant assembly line and item by item, they managed to get the job done.

"Every backpack will have two reference manuals, which is a medical dictionary and an infectious disease manual, both in Spanish, as well as a minor surgery kit. So, doctors will be able to perform sutures and other minor tasks," Fuller said.

"In Pittsburgh, with all the hospitals, we have a lot of medical surplus and a lot of it usually goes to waste and I think it's important to understand that a lot of other places don't really have the same privileges that we have here," Pitt student Tristan Horan said.

Global Links is a medical recovery organization that sends medical items to Latin America and the Caribbean.

These particular kits are going to a medical school in Cuba and they'll be used in underprivileged rural communities.

Employees at Global Links say volunteers are the life blood of their effort.

"We're a staff of about 14 people, but we process about 300 tons of medical supplies every year. So, we have a volunteer core of about 60 regular volunteers plus groups like these who come in pretty regularly," Fuller said.

Global Links also supplies medical gear to local free care clinics.

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