Medical and Humanitarian Aid Distribution
Relief Assistance for Vulnerable Panamanian Communities
DTCare collects and sends thousands of essential supplies across the globe in humanitarian assistance for vulnerable and marginalized communities. Panama is home to over 4.3 million people, and an estimated one in five Panamanians live in poverty. DTCare works primarily with women, children, and indigenous groups through aid provision and community programs that help elevate those in need. Between 2019 and now, DTCare sent more than ten 40-foot containers of humanitarian assistance to collection points in Monte Lirio and David, from where the supplies are dispersed and transported to DTCare’s community health clinic, elementary school, and indigenous families residing in the Comarca region.
Our local team and partners receive, sort, and distribute the much-needed supplies throughout towns and settlements in Panama. DTCare’s goal is to help limit uncontrollable surplus waste in the United States and give those preloved, usable equipment and supplies that would otherwise be sent to landfills, new life in communities that would otherwise have nothing. We work with the global logistics shipping company DTGruelle, which specializes in international freight forwarding, which enables DTCare to provide critically needed support and aid in some of the most austere and conflict-ridden parts of the world. This aims not only to heal our planet but provide essential humanitarian and relief aid to people affected by natural disasters, isolation, poverty, and war.
DTCare Container Arrival in Panama Kickstarts Essential Supply Distributions
In late July 2023, DTCare's most recent container arrived in Panama, marking the start of essential supply distributions in the Renacimiento region and its surroundings. DTCare's distributions are comprehensive, catering to a diverse range of needs, including aiding indigenous communities, supplying elderly care facilities with essential items, providing individuals with chronic conditions such as cerebral palsy with critically needed supplies, giving clothing to underprivileged children, donating medical supplies such as hospital beds to healthcare facilities, and delivering supplies to bedridden patients in secluded towns.
Assistance for Panamanian Indigenous Communities
There is a significant disparity between urban and rural areas in Panama, especially in terms of basic services and opportunities such as education and healthcare. Seven indigenous groups exist in Panama, and unfortunately, national resources are allocated unequally, significantly impoverishing rural communities consisting of predominantly indigenous populations. According to the World Bank, an estimated 86% of the indigenous community in Panama lives in poverty, and over 90% are unable to meet their basic needs.
In 2021, DTCare started working with indigenous groups, providing food, clothes, and medical support to improve deteriorating living conditions. Health problems resulting from an inadequate diet, medical care, and rural living conditions, such as diarrhea, stomach aches, rashes, and undernourishment, were persistent in the children of the group. DTCare partnered with a nearby medical clinic, AGIS, to provide health checkups to the mothers and children of the group to ensure that those in need of medicine or specialist care received the aid needed.
DTCare is working to provide essential supplies and support to indigenous groups in the Comarca region, especially women and children. The Ngäbe-Buglé indigenous community is the largest and most populous of Panama's five Comarca regions, and they are right next to the Monte Lirio village where DTCare works. Daniel Cedeño, head of DTCare’s in-country team, works at the Quebrada de Loro Health Center in the Ngabe Bugle District and often takes donations from our distribution aid to the health facility to share directly with that community. Patients are also allowed to make specific equipment requests to receive exactly what they need. In addition to our medical aid distribution, we also offer opportunities for free children's education, clothes, hygiene items, first-aid supplies, and toys that we distribute among the Ngäbe-Buglé families.
DTCare Ocean Container Relief Shipping
DTCare provides essential relief aid and additional support to vulnerable communities around the globe, particularly in Panama, Lebanon, Ukraine, and Poland. We collect items from our partners and donors nationally at our Pittsburgh, PA headquarters via collection drives, business and organizational pick-ups, and individual donations that we sort, inventory, transport, and distribute to our in-country teams who will then decide which groups most benefit from these donations. Like all of DTCare’s programs, we work with various NGOs and organizations across the globe to help send shipments to the communities we work in.
To date, we have sent over ten shipments since 2019. In 2022, we sent four 40-foot containers with almost 50,000 pounds of medical and mobility equipment and humanitarian aid. Each container contains hospital supplies such as gauze, bandages, surgery kits, hospital beds, mobility aids such as wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, etc., and child and school supplies to go towards our Blue Garden Elementary and Preschool. DTCare is continually working to collect, transport, and distribute these items to both the Monte Lirio and Ngäbe-Buglé community.
Our container-loading events bring various Pittsburgh residents together to help sort and pack mobility aids, first-aid supplies, clothes, toys, school and learning materials, feminine hygiene products, and more for seasonal humanitarian shipments. DTCare works closely with our local teams and partners on the ground to collect data and requests for needed supplies which we then set out to collect and ship.
A Humanitarian Effort that Goes Above and Beyond
DTCare provides essential supplies and additional support to vulnerable communities around the globe, particularly in Panama, Lebanon, Ukraine, and Poland. We collect items throughout the year via collection drives and individual donations that we sort, inventory, transport, and distribute to needy groups. On average, DTCare sends three or more ocean freight shipments, one shipment every season, to four out of the six countries we operate in. Our container-loading events unite Pittsburgh residents to help sort and pack mobility aids, first-aid supplies, clothes, toys, school and learning materials, feminine hygiene products, and more for seasonal humanitarian shipments. DTCare works closely with our local teams and partners on the ground to collect data and requests of needed supplies which we then set out to collect and ship.
