An abundance of medical supplies being wasted daily remind Joe Ngatia of growing up in Kenya, where medicine was not wasted if it was available. So the Bismarck anesthesiologist now works to get extra supplies to people who need them.
Last November, Ngatia, who moved to the United States from Africa in 1998 to attend school to practice medicine, decided to start an organization to send medical supplies to third world countries with little medical accessibility.
His organization, Afri Medic (short for Africa’s Medical Circle), collects medical supplies that usually go to waste to send overseas.
“My hope is, first of all, to minimize the things that go to waste in America that could be used by people in a third world country,” Ngatia said.
Somewhere between 20 and 50 people are currently involved with the organization.
Ngatia says it’s difficult to send supplies overseas because it’s so expensive and not very efficient.
He wants to develop an easier way to send medical supplies and people to Africa.
“A lot of people would like to go to Africa to help but don’t know a lot about how to,” Ngatia said.
Ngatia wrote a novel, “Shepherds of the Sun”, which follows the life of a boy who was born in Africa and ends up in America and what it takes to follow his dream.
It is based on his experience but is not a biography.
“There are things that you can never fully explain, but when you sit down and write them, people get it better,” Ngatia said.
