Challenge: 50 gifts for babies in 10 days. Odaboro Foundation will be collecting gifts, big or small, for Cincinnati Children's Hospital NICU babies for the next 10 days. Remember there are plenty of tiny babies and new moms that may be sleeping in the NICU for days, weeks or months... Email me for drop off locations or phone number. I'll make the deliver the night of Dec 24th. If wrapping please use either a gift bag or attach a description so that we can give appropriate gifts to babies, i.e. boy, girl, mom, preemie, etc. Things that you'd give at a baby shower, or for a friend that's a new mom for Christmas. Let's get it done!

During this trip, we were privledged to work in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Tamale Teaching Hospital in Tamale, Ghana where we met pediatrician, Dr. Hasan Mumin, who leads the medical staff in the NICU. Dr. Mumin was trained in Turkey and is currently responsible for the care of the infants in the NICU and the training of medical staff. We rounded with him and his staff each morning during our stay.

Half of the NICU supplies donated went to Tamale Teaching Hospital which included diapers, intravenous tubing and supplies, infant baths, respiratory equipment and a pulse oximeter machine (which follows oxygen levels in a baby to know if additional oxygen is needed).
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After all the donating, collecting, moving and shipping was done, the container arrived safely in Ghana for our arrival this January. The estimated $130,000 in medical supplies and equipment was distributed to the Ghana Health Service with plans for use at Ridge Regional Hospital in Accra and Tamale Teaching Hospital in Tamale.

We would like to thank the physicans and administrators who made this happen, including Dr.
Emmanuel Srofenyoh and Dr. Ken Sagoe as well as those at the Ghana Health Service administrators' office, notably Yaw Brobbey and Bernard Asamany. 

We hope that this is the beginning of multiple containers that will be shipped to Ghana in the years to come.

In fact, we have already started collecting for the next container.  If you have equipment or know a hospital that would like to particpate, please contact us at odaboro@gmail.com

Our first container has been packed and is ready to go to port in Virginia where it will be sent by ship to Ghana. It should arrive by the time we fly into Ghana at the end of January.  

After countless hours of collecting, planning and packing we realized that we have come into contact with some very generous people, and there are friends and family who we could not have done this without their support.

Boxes loaded: 199
Estimated weight: 7,181 lbs.
Estimated value: $130,000

Thank you to the Sears Family for hosting The 1stAnnual Tiny Warriors Golf Scramble. Thank you to the Mercy Hospital system for their scrub drive and generous medical equipment donation. Thank you to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital employees for collecting and donating medical supplies. Thank you to Kelly Lumber, Mike Coppage and Matt our forklift driver! Special thanks to Carol, Eric, Katrina, Kristin and Todd.
 
Thank you to all who have made generous donations in order to get us here.  Not only do we appreciate your generosity, but the babies in Ghana will shortly be receiving the benefits.

Odaboro Staff

Latest update: Cincinnati area hospitals will be collecting scrubs in bins located near their cafeteria beginning August 1st, 2012.

At this time the following hospitals will be collecting:
1. Mercy Anderson
2. Mercy Clermont
3. Mercy Fairfield
4. Mercy Mount Airy
5. Mercy Western Hills
6. The Jewish Hospital

Please let us know if you would like to add your hospital to those collecting scrubs for disadvantaged hospitals in impoverished nations.

PS. They don't have to fit the babies, just so long as they fit the staff.

Thanks to all 15 teams that participated this past week for the First Annual Tiny Warrior Golf Scramble. It was a great success. Congrats go out to the group lead by Chris Lenhof for their win with 20 under par. Chris has pledged to bring 3 or more teams next year.

More and better pictures to come. Stay tuned...

The Odaboro Foundation, on behalf of the Sears family, invites you to help support babies in NICU's across the globe. Jeff Sears, Khloe's father will be hosting the "Tiny Warriors Golf Tournament" to assist the Odaboro Foundation in supplying NICU's in need with medical supplies, equipment and education.

Please let us know if you will be attending by June 27th, OR if you just want to make a small donation that will be deeply appreciated. We will also need the names of the players on your team. If you are a single, etc. there will be extra players. Please forward to friends, family or other golfers. Thanks!

When: July 4th
Where: Deer Track
Time: 8:30 AM
Cost: $180 per 4 person team/ $45 each
Format: 4 person Team Scramble
Prizes: 1st place team, Longest drive, Closest to Pin, Skins Game extra ($10/team)

Checks payable to:
Jeff Sears
1101 Ferris Rd.
Amelia, OH 45102

Lots of babies during rainy season in Ghana. Lots of babies in the community and lots of babies in the hospital. This made for a difficult time educating staff but what better to educate on than saving babies lives. This visit we were able to work with Kybele to educate 25 nurses and midwives. We took a load of medical supplies (some of which were delayed a bit) but eventually delivered to the NICU, OR and Labor Ward. Thanks to everyone who helped us get there.

It's been a great month. I set the goal of 102 oxygen masks in 20 days and the date is fast approaching. Today I'm meeting Noel (a friend and previous coworker) who will be supplying me with lots of recycled bags and masks from Cincinnati Children's Liberty Campus PACU (post anesthesia care unit). I've collected several from Cincinnati Children's Hospital NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) and a few from other units including transport and hematology thanks to the support of friends and friends of friends. Also, this week, I received word that a box of 50 pediatric oxygen masks will be heading my way; as well as a shipment of various other items like baby clothes, flashlights, solar powered calculators, etc. I’m hopeful that we’ll reach this month’s goal but feel free to continue collecting to make sure, a few extra oxygen masks can only save another life. We’ll continue collecting and recycling all sorts of used medical supplies as long as there’s a need.

We've been in existence for a few months now, only recently receiving our Articles of Incorporation back with an okay from the state. We’re working on things at many different levels and have a lot of needs at this point. Though we should meet our first goal of 102 oxygen masks in 20 days, any help getting us “up and running” would be great as well. I’ve received a lot of emails from friends asking how they can help. My response is “Yes, how can you help?” What I mean by this is the number of ways you can help is only limited by your imagination, will, talent, determination… We can use donations for shipping supplies, more people collecting supplies, people willing to write letters or make phone calls to suppliers asking them to “recycle” the demo equipment that will otherwise be shoved into a corner once the next new technology is out… The number of ways to help is unlimited. Though I mention many on our “Ways to Help” page, I have faith that you can come up with your own great ways. Future campaign suggestions are welcome as well. I’m currently trying to come up with new campaigns for each month. The plan is a 20 day campaign followed by a 9-11 day break each month (even though this current campaign ends on the 4th – we’ll continue to back it up until we can kick each month off with a new campaign).

Next month’s campaign will likely be started around November 10th and be focused on airline miles. We will soon be making a trip to Ghana and could certainly use the help with the extra miles. Airline tickets aren’t cheap these days. Unless someone out there has a connection that could get us hooked up with an airline that would like to be a sponsor and donate several tickets to Africa each year. Maybe I should write that as a question. Does anyone have a connection that could get us a several tickets per year to Africa?

More ideas that might work for different people… Include us in your will. Hold a charity event; small or large, at your home, local bar / restaurant, banquet hall… make it fun and exciting like a Halloween, Christmas or New Year’s Party, elegant like the perfect wedding or just a large group of friends donating a few bucks to partake in a wine tasting. Compete in a race and ask for donations. Hold a concert, sell a piece of art, put together a baby clothing drive, coordinate your hospital’s collection efforts, ask a friend to write a jingle, make an ad, talk to elderly about adding Odaboro Foundation to their wills as the benefactor of all used medical equipment. Know someone that owns or manages a storage unit? Recommend us to newspapers and magazines for articles of interest. The list is never ending, much like the need of babies in hospitals. Please take a moment to think about the best way you can help and you could help us save another life.

Michael Moyer
President and Founder
Odaboro Foundation