MEDICATION valued at just over Cdn$2 million has been donated to the Bustamante Hospital for Children by the Universal Healthcare Trust (UHT), through the efforts of members of ‘Nine Miles of Smiles’ and ‘Friends of the Bustamante Hospital’ in Toronto, Canada.

The donation, which was shipped to Jamaica, includes 1.3 million tablets of the antibiotics, Ciprofloxacin, Duovir and Metronodazole. The UHT also paid for the shipment to Jamaica.

Representatives of all three organisations made the announcement recently at the offices of the Jamaican Consulate General in Toronto.

Rahul Singh, a Trustee with UHT and also a paramedic in Toronto, said that Jamaica was just one of over 14 countries the organisation has assisted with more than Cdn$70 million in medication.

“We would be willing to assist Jamaica again, so this is like a trial run to see how smoothly everything goes. If we can build on past successes, then we will be able to help Jamaica with all of us working together,” he said.

Kimberly Stoppa, who pointed out that ‘Nine Miles of Smiles’ started out as a volunteer dental organisation but has expanded to a healthcare organisation, noted that “helping is simple, our job is to make it easy”.

Meanwhile, president of the ‘Friends of the Bustamante Hospital’, Patrick Griffiths, said he was elated that the UHT decided to give this donation to Jamaica, but noted that much more needed to be done. “We are grateful for all the tremendous medicine and equipment the hospital has received, but it is also in dire need of a CatScan machine which we are working on,” he said.

Dale Jones, consul at the Jamaican Consulate General, expressed appreciation on behalf of the government and people of Jamaica for the donation. “This donation will greatly contribute to improving the health and welfare of some of our nation’s youngest citizens,” he said.