“The pandemic offered an opportunity to use CWRU’s geographically diverse student body to help with a nationwide shortage of PPE.” —Julian Narvaez, student president of CWRU MedWish
For pre-med students with an eye toward supporting medical care for underserved populations, Case Western Reserve University’s MedWish student organization is the gathering point for good works.
The student group typically works to repair discarded medical equipment and ship it to countries in need—things like pulse oximeters in Ethiopia and ICU monitors in Somalia. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the group expanded their mission to support health care closer to home, enlisting volunteers to make personal protective equipment from home and distribute the gear throughout their communities.
CWRU MedWish ships the materials to the volunteers, providing each with enough to make up to 18 pieces of PPE. The group covers the full cost of the supplies through its own funding from organizations like the Case Alumni Association and the National Institutes of Health.
Stepping up and improving health in communities locally and around the world... that’s what we do every day at CWRU.