Basic Organization Information
Global Links
- Physical Address:
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Pittsburgh, PA
15224 1301
- EIN:
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52-1629060
- Web URL:
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www.globallinks.org
- NTEE Category:
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Q International, Foreign Affairs, and National Security
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Q33 International Relief
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C Environmental Quality Protection, Beautification
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E Health—General & Rehabilitative
- Year Founded:
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1994
- Ruling Year:
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1994
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Mission Statement
<p>Global Links is a medical relief and development organization dedicated to a two-fold mission of environmental stewardship and improving health in developing countries. Global Links accomplishes this mission through collaborative efforts including:</p>
<p>1. Sharing expertise and technical knowledge with international and domestic partners;</p>
<p>2. Redirecting still-useful materials away from U.S. landfills to public health improvement efforts in targeted countries throughout the hemisphere; and</p>
<p>3. Educating local partners, volunteers and the Pittsburgh community about crucial issues of global health equity and environmental stewardship. </p>
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Impact Summary from the Nonprofit
<div>1. In 2010, Global Links achieved two milestones: in September we shipped our 400<sup>th</sup> container of medical materials to hospitals and clinics in need, representing over $170 million worth of scarce and often lifesaving items. GL sent a record 39 shipments to ten developing countries. <br />2. Each year, GL diverts more than 250 tons of medical materials from landfills in the Pittsburgh region to lifesaving purposes. In 2010 our environmental contributions were nationally recognized: we earned a Champion for Change Environmental Excellence award from Practice Greenhealth. Through GL efforts, still useful materials discarded due to hospital protocols, changes in regulations, etc., can be repurposed to save lives in other countries. </div>
<div>3. Another record for our organization: in 2010, volunteers of all ages provided over 9,000 hours of service to GL. GL offers volunteers a unique opportunity to become active, hands-on participants in social change. </div>
<div>4. Immediately following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, GL assumed a leadership role in coordinating relief efforts in the Pittsburgh community. We provided local first-responder medical personnel with key materials to hand-deliver, and also coordinated shipments of desperately needed medications and supplies. In late 2010, GL sent several shipments intended for cholera relief for use in the Cholera Treatment Centers and Units throughout the country. </div>
<div>5. Through collaborations with partners such as PAHO and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, GL made significant contributions to strengthening the infrastructure of health services in Guatemala. Among the areas of emphasis is the reduction in maternal and child mortality. Our efforts included furnishing renovated or new facilities. We also responded to severe flooding throughout Guatemala caused by tropical Storm Agatha; donations from GL allowed the re-opening of two operating rooms that had been taken out of service because of lack of key items.</div>
Leadership
Kathleen Hower
Term:
Since
Aug
1989
Leadership Statement:
<p>We are privileged to be able to contribute to improving the health and lives of people in need in the countries we serve. We are inspired by the evidence of the positive results of our work: mothers delivering babies in safety and dignity in delivery suites furnished and equipped with Global Links donations; successful pediatric cardiac surgery using specialized sutures provided through our Suture Donation Program; children with asthma and other respiratory illnesses having access to crucial treatments with nebulizers we provided to community clinics.</p>
<p>Global Links distinguishes itself from other organizations providing medical materials to the developing world through its singular approach to recovering and distributing these materials. We are committed to cultivating long-term partnerships with recipients to ensure suitability of donations with the needs and capabilities of recipient institutions, and by recovering only high-quality and still highly useful materials. On the supply end we work with US hospitals, mostly in western Pennsylvania and the tri-state area, establishing relationships with over 30 donor healthcare facilities, supporting their efforts to practice “green health care” and manage disposal of materials in an environmentally responsible way. Through this model of recovery we can offer recipients in resource-poor areas a full range of medical products, thus having a real impact on a hospital’s capacity to treat its patients. </p>
<p>We rely heavily on community volunteers to process and package many of the supplies we receive, and we are deeply appreciative of volunteer efforts. Global Links welcomes groups and individual volunteers at our offices in Garfield and our warehouse in Homewood/Point Breeze and offering the chance for Pittsburghers to become active global citizens while improving their local environment.</p>
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Program:
Environmental Stewardship in Healthcare
- Budget:
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$200,000
- Category:
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- Population Served:
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Program Description:
<p> Global Links helps healthcare facilities and the greater community to develop greener processes that reduce their environmental impact by keeping usable materials out of landfills. Through this program, Global Links keeps over 250 tons of medical materials out of local landfills every year and donates them throughout the hemisphere to improve health in targeted programs. Today, every hospital in the Pittsburgh region - more than 25 - particpates in the Global Links recovery program, along with numerous other care facilities and homecare providers, as part of their growing effort to practice green healthcare. We also train thousands of personnel throughout the hospitals -- from areas as diverse as purchasing, materials management, facilities management, nursing, and operating room teams -- on appropriate and effective means of waste reduction and recovery and donation procedures.</p>
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Program:
International medical aid
- Budget:
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$600,000
- Category:
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- Population Served:
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Program Description:
<p>Global Links collaborates with a broad range of partners, both overseas and domestic, to improve health in our nine program countries. Whether the goal is improving maternal-infant care in Guatemala, furnishing primary care clinics in Nicaragua, or helping hospitals recover from natural disasters, Global Links works closely with partners at all levels – from the highest levels of government to local hospitals and health centers to doctors in the field. These collaborative partnerships have always been essential components in our model of targeted aid through cooperation, and provide the framework for our mission.</p>
Program Long-Term Success:
Improved health for underserved populations in the countries where we work is the ultimate goal of our programs. Success is measured by better health statistics regarding infant and maternal mortality rates, number of patients with better access and lower rates for prevental diseases.
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Program:
Community Outreach and Education
- Budget:
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$100,000
- Category:
-
- Population Served:
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Program Description:
<p>Global Links educates partners, volunteers, and other members of the community on issues of international health and development, and on the environment. Global Links supporters engage in projects that will make a meaningful difference in our own community and in the wider world. Volunteers are an essential part of Global Links’ operations. Volunteers sort and pack needed medical supplies for shipment to hospitals serving the poor in developing countries. Some volunteers check equipment or help with paperwork. More than 75% of the medical supplies Global Links sends overseas are packed by volunteers. Global Links also provides materials to the local not-for-profit community, redirecting more than 10 tons of of recovered mateirals locally in the first six months of 2011.</p>
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Program:
International Suture Donation Program
- Budget:
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$26,700
- Category:
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- Population Served:
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Program Description:
In many developing countries, hospitals that serve the poor have a chronic shortage of sutures – surgical stitching material – or they don’t have the right type or good quality sutures. Without sutures, surgery is impossible. Mothers who need cesarean sections have no other options. Without sutures, they die. With inappropriate sutures, wounds don’t heal well, infection sets in, and scarring can occur. Since 1989, Global Links Suture Donation Program has been collecting surplus sterile sutures from hospitals across the United States and sending it to hospitals in developing countries that serve the poor. The hospitals that receive sutures from Global Links have made a commitment to care for those unable to pay. Since the program's inception in 1990, more than one millions packets of sutures have been donated.
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Evidence of Impact
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Organizational Strengths
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Areas for Improvement
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