As a small child, co-founder Claire Lane would watch kids TV show Captain Planet religiously. It was the triumphs of the green-haired hero that opened her eyes to not only the environmental impact humans have on the world, but also how poor the conditions are in developing nations.
After experiencing some hardships and deferring her studies in nursing, a degree that she later completed, Claire was working in an orthopaedic operating theatre and watched on as two complete hip packs - containing mostly disposable items needed for total hip replacements - were thrown away.
“I couldn’t believe it - including implants, they were worth $5,000,” Claire says.
“I asked all of my educators, supervisors and managers where we could take them to avoid ending up in landfill and they all said nowhere. I ended up calling 20 different places trying to find one that would take them.
“While I did find Donations in Kind, which would accept the donation and who we still work with today, I couldn’t find any organisation that would collect usable items like the hip replacement kits and make sure they were being redistributed to where they were needed.”
This set her on a path to founding Save Our Supplies.
“My partner at the time, Richard Owens, and the co-founder of Save Our Supplies was studying his MBA and he helped me set up the organisation as a charity. We became established in 2012, while living in a granny flat with our two-year-old son in tow,” Claire says.
Save Our Supplies collects usable medical items that would otherwise be disposed of and redistributes them to other charitable organisations that work in developing nations.
“We are focused on creating sustainable solutions regarding the level of access to clean, appropriate and usable medical supplies for professionals operating in developing countries. We aim to become a sustainable charitable operation that can achieve this objective, first in Queensland, then across Australia,” Claire says.
“Currently our collection bins are placed in two major Brisbane hospitals, which is great, and there are other hospitals that have expressed an interest in being involved, but as a small charity we just don’t have the resources to take them on yet.”
Claire is determined to establish a sustainable network of Australian hospitals that regularly donate usable medical supplies through a collection system operated and managed by Save Our Supplies.
“Once collected, we then organise donated supplies to be distributed to organisations operating in developing nations. By providing usable medical supplies, we are hoping to improve the standard of basic health care offered to individuals living in impoverished conditions,” Claire says.
Lack of manpower and exposure have been the biggest issues faced by Save Our Supplies.
“Currently, it’s just me trying to do everything. I’m lucky enough to have my two children help me sort out supplies and Richard still plays an important role in helping with the business side. I also have a handful of volunteers, nurses that I work with, who occasionally come and help sort and pack supplies,” Claire says.
“I am trying to get word out so the government will listen and stop turning a blind eye to the vast amount of wastage hospitals generate and the dire need for these items in developing nations.
“We haven’t received any funding and most of our business has grown by word of mouth amongst health-care professionals.”
The achievements have also been great.
“In 2019 we were able to collect approximately 71,100 medical items worth a value of $60,000, including 2000 bandages, 1000L of IV fluids, 5000 syringes and 3000 hypodermics,” Claire says.
“We were lucky enough to win the Chief Entrepreneur Choice at SparkPlug, were invited to be members of the Advancing Champion Enterprise, work with Griffith University to be incorporated into their MBA program, been invited to join the advisory team for the Global Business Challenge 2020 and held a successful fundraising event.”
Looking forward, Save Our Supplies is initially focusing on establishing a collection network for unused surplus medical supplies with the major private and public hospitals in Queensland. It is then looking to expand operations into other Australian states and territories.
“We are lucky to have some incredible partnerships so far, including Donations in Kind, who has established operations in every state and territory and are assisting throughout Australia to deliver supplies where they are needed,” Claire says.
“We also have some great delivery partners including Rotary Association, Planet Medic, Airborne Aid, the Medical Engineering Research Facility and the Animal Rescue Collective. These partnerships have allowed us to help stock a primary health clinic in Cambodia, send supplies to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Samoa, have our supplies used in training doctors on cadavers and provide assistance to animals during the Australian bushfires in 2019-2020.
“We also work with The World’s Biggest Garage Sale, which is a social enterprise that does similar work to us, but instead of medical items they have everyday items. They have sectioned off part of their warehouse to store our supplies.
“We hope to expand these relationships and to continue to grow and help those in need, however a lot of our plans have been put on hold as we are working with Queensland Health to resupply surgical gowns from our stocks to help with the current shortage of PPE due to COVID-19.”
