January 11, 2002

Retired businessman recycles discarded hospital equipment and distributes it to needy developing world countries.

Hospitals in North America are filled with medical equipment that is no longer needed and in fact is just taking up space, while hospitals in other parts of the world desperately need whatever they can get their hands on to save lives.

A case in point is the Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg. They had a problem. Operating tables, beds, and all sorts of medical equipment was just collecting dust and taking up room, no longer meeting Canadian standards.

But recently retired businessman Len Doerksen had a solution. In fact, Doerksen has developed a reputation in the medical industry for making use of this kind of used equipment.

"Some of the health care facility managers that I've dealt with for so long they have come to me and said, 'Do you really mean to tell me you can actually use this stuff that we've got stored?' The answer is yes," said Doerksen.

Doerksen worked in health care for almost 40 years in inspection and testing and designing medical gas-piping systems. For the past 35 years, Doerksen and his wife have been involved in third world relief and development organizations, and doing it in the name of Jesus.

"I have come to realize that our hospitals in North America-this includes U.S. and Canada-have storage areas that are jammed full of useable equipment and there are hospitals in the third world that are just desperately in need of everything and anything for their hospitals," Doerksen said.

With the equipment located, Doerksen contacted Crossroads, producers of 100 Huntley Street, to see if they needed hospital equipment for the Sudan; they said yes.

Once everything is containerized, it will be shipped to Yei in Southern Sudan, an area that's been hit extremely hard by the on going war. It will take between six and eight weeks to reach its destination. Members of the South Sudanese community in Winnipeg were on hand to help load the equipment at the Winnipeg hospital.

James Okot is the pastor of the African Congregation in Winnipeg, with the majority of his church body from South Sudan. Pastor Okot was recently in Nimule, Sudan, near the Ugandan border and saw the desperate needs of his people and the lack of medical facilities, he wants to help in whatever way he can.

"This is something that is practical that we can do and it is very important and I want our people to know that we are here, not just to save our skin. We are here, we are thinking about them, we love them, we are so concerned about them. That's why even in the cold winter like this we can come out here and load these things and we have great joy of doing it," said Okot.