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. The project’s goal is to replace damaged medical equipment, supplies and furniture in 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 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, 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, 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.
Sandy Doctors Recovery
www.sandydoctorsrecovery.org
Aidmatrix
www.aidmatrix.org
American Logistics Aid Network
www.alanaid.org
Afya Foundation
www.afyafoundation.org
Global Links
www.globallinks.org