By Heidi Rickels of Project C.U.R.E.

Local volunteers of Project Cure Arizona this month helped load a 40-foot container full of donated medical supplies and equipment that will be delivered to a Clinton Foundation-sponsored HIV/AIDS clinic in rural Ethiopia.

Nearly 1 million of Ethiopia’s population of 77 million people are living with HIV. Because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, increasing demand for health-care services is overwhelming the public health infrastructure in Ethiopia, especially in the rural areas.

In developing nations such as Ethiopia, thousands of children are born on the hospital floor, patients lie two and three in a single bed, surgeons have no sutures and lab technicians have no gloves. The lack of health-care infrastructure completely disrupts social and economic stability in nearly every developing country in the world.

Project C.U.R.E. is partnering with the Clinton Foundation to deliver 21 cargo containers of medical relief to clinics in Ethiopia by the end of 2007.

Local residents can get involved in the continuing efforts of Project C.U.R.E. by volunteering to sort incoming donated medical supplies, donating supplies and equipment or sponsoring boxes, pallets and containers of medical relief.

To get involved in the Phoenix area, contact: Project C.U.R.E. Arizona at (480) 237-0970 or [email protected]