A helpful hand

JMU business professor works with students in 'humanitarian effort' to send medical supplies to countries in need

By EVAN MOODY The Breeze

A 40-foot ocean freight container arrives at a hospital in wartorn Izyum, Ukraine. Within the shipment are hospital beds, gurneys and boxes with JMU students’ signatures.

This is the work of the Association of Supply Chain Management club, or ASCM, at JMU. William Ritchie, a business management professor and the faculty adviser of the club, said ASCM specializes in packing, loading, organizing and delivering medical supplies to areas in need across the globe.

“This is a great humanitarian effort for the students to be giving back to the community,” Ritchie said.

Within the past week, the club loaded two more containers that they shipped off to Samara University Hospital in Ethiopia. Along with a container to the Kharkov region of Ukraine in the fall of 2022, the club has worked with a total of 10 shipments since August 2020.

Such supplies can include bandages, personal protective equipment (PPE), masks and surgical drapes, Ritchie said.

Mihret Medical Supply Group, a nonprofit created by Virginia doctors, supplies the club with medical equipment to send to countries in need. Most of the equipment is within a year of being out of date, which entices hospitals to donate.