Thank you for taking the time to review with us the sad story of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. It has been nearly twenty years that I have personally been involved in the lives and national history of the country. In previous years, it was Project C.U.R.E.’s privilege to see to it that hundreds, and hundreds of thousands of dollars-worth of desperately needed medical goods were donated and delivered to the hospitals and clinics of both, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. Only eternity will reveal how many lives were saved and broken bodies made well over that 20-year period.
I viewed the recent pictures of the people of Stepanakert, Martakert, and various hillside villages, fleeing their homes with only the few belongings that they could manage to carry out by hand. I studied the photos of their burning homes and outbuildings they were leaving behind them as they were forced to walk the long and treacherous road back to Yerevan, Armenia – where they had nothing at all waiting for them. My heart was broken. Many of them were my friends.
In the midst of all that chaos, some beautiful things have been happening over the past few weeks. As you are aware, Project C.U.R.E. has huge warehouses and collection/distribution operations, not only in the Denver area, but also, in Phoenix, Nashville, Houston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and additional “collection sites” in a dozen other U.S. cities.
A talented and dedicated lady named Janet Thomason, was the Executive Director of Project C.U.R.E.’s Houston operation. A short while back, Janet Thomason was promoted by our President/CEO, Dr. Douglas Jackson, to the position of Director of National Procurement for our whole operation. Guess what?! Janet’s grandparents are Armenian Christians. You might say, that Janet has a tender heart toward the Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh situation!
Janet got busy and teamed up with our international contacts, like: American Healthcare Association of the Bay Area (AHABA), the Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA), and the Armenian American Medical Association (AAMA). Over 50 pallets have been delivered, or on their way, by air into Yerevan, including such needed items as critical surgical supplies and wound-care devices. Some of the critical medical supplies have been shipped out of Houston, as well as Los Angeles. Medical doctors who were individually headed to the disaster area, were loaded up with “CURE Kits” that were taken directly to the crisis areas. Over 120 brand new Stryker Emergency Relief beds have been shipped by sea, with another two ocean-going cargo containers full of beds already on their way from our Philadelphia operation.
Janet Thomason remains in continual contact with the health organizations and Armenia’s Minister of Health, who keep her updated with the current needs. To close out this series of blogs on Nagorno-Karabakh, I would like to share with you a letter we just received from the President of the Board of Directors of AHABA, one of the health organizations with whom we are working during this current crisis:
November 2, 2020
Project C.U.R.E.
10377 E. Geddes Avenue
Centennial, CO 80112
Dear Project C.U.R.E.,
I am moved to write this letter of gratitude for all you have done to help the Armenian Health Care Association of the Bay Area (AHABA), a 501 (c)(3) (46-5168594) charitable organization led by Armenian-American physicians in the San Francisco Bay Area. You have been an invaluable partner as we work to provide aid, medical equipment and medical supplies, as well as medications to the people of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), who find themselves in a healthcare and humanitarian crisis caused by the aggression of Azerbaijan over Armenian ancestral land.
In the midst of this devastating war, C.U.R.E has worked with AHABA to provide high quality emergency lifesaving equipment and supplies at tremendous discounts from your surplus depots in Houston and Dallas. Included, was a sonogram machine, that will allow surgeons to quickly and accurately diagnose and triage civilians and soldiers with cluster bomb wounds, that cause devastating internal damage to the heart, the lungs and other organs, enabling more lives to be saved.
Hundreds of wound vacuum-assisted closing devices that have also been shipped, are now being used by the Armenian surgeons to treat complicated wounds to prevent infection from setting in. The specialized suture materials we have shipped thanks to you, allow Armenian plastic surgeons to repair instead of having to amputate limbs, which would leave the adults and children injured with lifelong disabilities. The orthopedic surgical supplies we have sent will be used to treat patients with open bone fractures. This is in addition to the hundreds of basic surgical supplies such as tourniquets, sponges, surgical instrument sets, IV infusion supplies and personal protective equipment to prevent the spread of COVID to the frontline workers in the hospitals.
We truly appreciate your acknowledgement of the urgency of our situation and your deep experience working with international disasters, which compelled you to prioritize our needs and expedite the shipments sent to date. We know that C.U.R.E. volunteers worked through the weekends to make sure that the shipments were sent out as quickly as possible. Additionally, when we were able to find a pro bono shipper within the Armenian community to take on that part of the job, your responsiveness to our request for the switch was impressive and the transition from your shipping department to ours was seamless. You always had our best interests in mind.
With your help, to date we have sent three full shipments of sorted, inventoried and palleted goods to Armenia in response to specific daily requests from Armenia based on their current needs on the ground. Anahit Avanesyan Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Health stated on a recent weekly call to the Armenian Medical International Committee (AMIC), the group that coordinates all Armenian medical aid from the diaspora, “The shipments that came from New York and Los Angeles containing supplies from Project C.U.R.E. non-governmental organization, arrived well-packed, fully organized and catalogued, enabling us to streamline the distribution of individual supplies to hospitals throughout the area where they were most needed.”
Overall, we could not ask for a better partner that was as well-run, more organized, cost-effective, efficient and caring than Project C.U.R.E. We would especially like to extend personal thanks to Janet Thomason, Project C.U.R.E. Director of National Procurement, for sharing her expertise and putting her heart into our project, and to Steven Wagener, Director of Logistics for his exquisite attention to detail.
On behalf of our entire Board of Directors and the country of Armenia, thank you again for your kind generosity and for enabling our fundraising efforts to achieve their greatest impact on the devastating ongoing medical and humanitarian crisis occurring in Artsakh and Armenia.
Sincerely,
Elena Sagayan, MD
President, Board of Directors Armenian Health Care Association of the Bay Area
I am so very proud to be even a small part of this amazing organization known as Project C.U.R.E. What a great way to end the year, 2020! May God continue to bless and protect our President/CEO, Dr. Douglas Jackson, the multi-talented staff members, the 30,000 dedicated volunteers, the board of directors, the ever-faithful donors, and all the varied programs and projects that we have going on in the over 130 countries around this needy world. It’s no wonder that I am still the “Happiest Man in the World.”