AT&T’s Indian employees organize to offer volunteer services
Over 40 OASIS volunteers worked at MedShare on August 2 in an opportunity to save lives through sorting and packing boxes of medical supplies. These three-hour volunteer sessions include a tour of the MedShare facility, an orientation on how to identify, sort, and re-box medical supplies, and a short wrap-up where volunteers learned more about the global impact from their contribution.
OASIS, or Organization of Asian Indians at AT&T, is an employee resource group (ERG) and a nonprofit for community service, leadership development and career growth of members, and promotion of cultural diversity at AT&T. Of the eight U.S. chapters, Atlanta is one of the largest with over 1000 members.
MedShare is a nonprofit that collects surplus medical supplies and equipment from hospitals, distributors, and manufacturers and redistributes them to qualified healthcare facilities in the developing world. This prevents usable items from going to landfills and save lives instead. Volunteers play a critical role in sorting the supplies, packing them by category, and checking expiration dates to make sure recipients receive only usable supplies.
After Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippines on Nov 8th, 2013 with a loss of 62,000 people and impact on over 14 million people, MedShare shipped 15,000 lbs of critical medical supplies worth over $800K for immediate relief and since then they have sent 10 forty foot containers of medical supplies worth several million dollars for the important process of rebuilding and restoring hospitals and clinics.
This year OASIS has coordinated 12 MedShare volunteer sessions in collaboration with other ERGs for 800 volunteer hours. They have sorted 31,705 lbs (3154 boxes) and over 3 forty foot containers of life-saving medical supplies that include syringes, catheters, suction pipes,
sutures, prosthetic legs, surgical gowns, gloves and other medical supplies worth over $1 million. As a part of this effort, OASIS has raised over $1,000 for shipping medical supplies to the Philippines.
OASIS Atlanta is 4 years old and has supported other projects as well: Raksha, Festival of India, Chinmaya Mission Alpharetta, and Vibha events by securing AT&T sponsorship. In 2012 OASIS raised over $17,000 for critical healthcare improvement for a MedShare project that was part of President Clinton’s global health initiative program. OASIS organized several community service events at Atlanta Community Food Bank, North Fulton Community Charities, Books for Africa, and MedShare with thousands of hours of volunteering. Its initiative to teach middle and high schools students Mobile Application Development was recognized by AT&T in 2013 with the ERG in Action Award. To encourage girls to get involved in science and technology, a “Girls Get IT” event was organized for high school girls in July 2014. It has 4 more MedShare sessions scheduled this year.
Website Bonus Feature
Link:
AT&T’s OASIS volunteers
http://oasisatt.org/
Video:
MedShare // All it takes is hands + heart
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