Kilili donation supports medical outreach efforts

The Community Outreach Recovery Effort, more popularly known as C.O.R.E., thanked Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) and his wife Andrea for donating critical medical supplies to support the group’s outreach work with typhoon survivors in need of healthcare.

C.O.R.E. targets survivors who have difficulty obtaining medical care for any reason, including disability, financial hardship, or lack of insurance. The C.O.R.E. team includes trained nurses and outreach volunteers, many of whom are also part of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s Medical Reserve Corps.

“Andrea and I saw firsthand the fine work of the C.O.R.E. volunteers when we visited the medical outreach clinic in Tanapag village and accompanied the nursing team on a home visit,” Sablan said. “We asked Nurse Abbys how we could help them do more home visits, especially for people with disabilities, and she said what they needed was medical supplies.”

C.O.R.E. volunteer and nurse Abbys Amante Mitchell prepared a “wish list” of items that nurse volunteers would require for their medical kits in order to do home visits. The Sablans delivered those items to the C.O.R.E. headquarters in Garapan days later, on Sept. 16.

C.O.R.E member Glen Hunter stated that they were “extremely thankful to Kilili and his wife for this huge personal donation. They have already given so much.”

“It was amazing to have the congressman show up at the Mobile Clinic and actually accompany our volunteers on home visits,” said Hunter. “There are still so many members of our community that have been living in substandard environments without power and water for weeks. These supplies will enable us to continue to address their medical needs through our comprehensive direct relief efforts.”

The Sablans’ donation includes blood pressure and glucose monitors, stethoscopes, pulse oximeters, hand sanitizers, latex gloves, wound dressing supplies, and other medical items valued altogether at $862. Sablan also thanked PHI Pharmacy for providing the supplies at a discounted rate.

The donation comes just in time for the next medical outreach event scheduled tomorrow Sept. 19, at the Koblerville Youth Center, from 1pm to 5pm. The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., the Medical Reserve Corps, and C.O.R.E. have once again teamed up to stage a mobile clinic, and C.O.R.E. volunteers will be heading out to make home visits and coordinate transportation for those needing rides to the clinic.

This will be the third medical outreach serving typhoon survivors in three weeks. Mitchell says C.O.R.E. has conducted more than 30 home visits since the project launched on Sept. 6. Additionally, more than 150 survivors received medical care at mobile clinics in Tanapag and Chalan Kanoa on Sept. 6 and 12, respectively.

For more information about C.O.R.E. or to make a donation, email coresaipan@gmail.com or call 783-4204. (CORE)