The only way to do something like this is to really, really, truly believe in it.
-Dr. Kevin Strathy
Episode Summary
Dr. Kevin Strathy doesn’t just spend his days performing life-changing reconstructive surgery. As the Founder of Liberia Medical Relief, he’s also making sure emerging Liberian clinicians have the training they need to succeed while coordinating medical supply shipment and distribution in the country. Don’t miss the chance to learn more about his organization’s incredible work as he joins Kristi and Monica to discuss his career, pressing medical needs and lessons learned.
Episode Transcript
Intro/Outro (00:02):
Welcome to logistics with purpose presented by vector global logistics in partnership with supply chain. Now we spotlight and celebrate organizations who are dedicated to creating a positive impact. Join us for this behind the scenes glimpse of the origin stories, change making progress and future plans of organizations who are actively making a difference. Our goal isn’t just to entertain you, but to inspire you to go out and change the world. And now here’s today’s episode of logistics with purpose.
Kristi Porter (00:34):
Hi, I’m Kristi Porter with vector global logistics, and I’d like to welcome you to another episode of logistics with purpose. I today, I’m excited to have my teammate Monica Roche with me. Hi, Mon, how are you today?
Monica Roesch (00:46):
Hi, Christy. Doing great. And you,
Kristi Porter (00:48):
I am really good. I know you are especially excited for this interview. Um, it’s been one you’ve wanted to set up for a long time and you’ve been a fan of this organization for the last few years being able to move their shipments. So we are thrilled to welcome and introduce, uh, Dr. Kevin Strathy plastic surgeon at CRE plastic surgery and, uh, founder of Liberia medical relief. So Dr. Kevin, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (01:14):
Thank you very much.
Monica Roesch (01:16):
Hi, Dr. Kevin, as Christy was mentioning, it’s a really big pleasure for us to have you here today. Uh, so first of all, I would like to talk a little bit about where you grew up, how was your childhood like, um, can you share some memories of your upbringing place?
Dr. Kevin Strathy (01:32):
Yeah, sure. Um, I’m originally from the Midwest. I grew up, uh, in Minnesota and Wisconsin. I was born in Minneapolis. Uh, my father was a, a hospital administrator, so that was my first introduction to medicine. Uh, but I grew up in a pretty typical, uh, middle class American family. Um, I never had, uh, to really worry too much about things. Um, I was always in a secure environment and that, uh, has made it a lot easier, I think, to be able to give back because I’ve never had to really be too concerned about, uh, my own wellbeing.
Kristi Porter (02:12):
Yeah. Makes sense. I can hear a little bit of the Minnesota whenever you say it. So still hanging on there. Yeah. And now are joining us from Liberia today. Um, we’re gonna talk a lot about medicine and your medical influence sounds like it started at a very early age. So I’m curious, um, looking back at those early years, what’s a story is you spent a lot of time, obviously in a hospitals in, in and around the medical field. So is there one or two specific memories that stand out that you think contributed to where you got to today?
Dr. Kevin Strathy (02:46):
Well, you know, I, um, uh, I think that one of the, the, uh, influences that I had when I was a child was a man by the name of Dr. Richard Owen. Uh, he was, um, he was a, a friend of my father’s and he was one of the people that I respected, uh, more than just about anybody else. I knew as a child, he was just a wonderful guy and he was very giving and very caring. And I think he had a huge influence on me, uh, wanted to become a physician. The, the truth is I, uh, wasn’t necessarily inclined to become a physician when I was young. Uh, or even when I was in college, when I was in college, I was very interested in chemistry and I thought that, uh, that was the career I wanted to choose. Uh, I have an identical twin brother who is an orthopedic church, and he always wanted to be a surgeon. Uh, and my father sort of coached me into the fact that I could do a lot more with an MD degree than I could do with other degrees. And it just would open a lot of doors and made a lot of sense. I’ve always advised my kids, keep the doors open, don’t slam any doors by behind you. And so I followed my dad’s advice and went to medical school. Uh, when I got into medical school, I found out that I just really, really loved surgery. And so I became a plastic reconstructive surgeon.
Kristi Porter (04:12):
And what was it like growing up with a twin?
Dr. Kevin Strathy (04:14):
Well, what’s it like not to grow up with a twin? You know, the only thing I know, um, I always had a best friend. Uh, he just was here, left here about a week and a half ago. He was here in Liberia for five weeks doing reconstructive pediatric orthopedics, uh, teaching the librarians how to do that. And so it was really wonderful to have him here for those weeks. Uh, but you know, being a twin is, uh, just, it’s just being another guy, I guess. Yeah,
Kristi Porter (04:46):
That’s fantastic. I love that. Uh, so yeah, you talked a little bit about the chemistry background. Um, so what was it that really was there another kind of epiphany shift or a slow shift over time and why you decide when you decided to study medicine and become a plastic surgeon? And I, I’m assuming, um, there’s still some of that research chemist background that comes into play in your life now, too.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (05:11):
Oh yeah. I, um, I’ve always enjoyed academics. Um, I was a clinical professor in, uh, two departments at the university of Minnesota when I was practicing in Minnesota. Uh, I’ve always liked teaching. I’ve always liked studying. I still study. I still read a lot. Uh, there’s always information to be gotten. And so, uh, the, you don’t really lose that. Uh, I, I don’t do real research right now, although I’ve done some in the past, uh, but academics is exciting. Learning is exciting. And I think we just have to keep it up coming here and being in Liberia now I’ve had to relearn a lot. I learn a lot from the local doctors about tropical medicine and how to handle things in a, uh, more limited, uh, uh, you know, resource limited environment. And so it’s, uh, it’s just an ongoing learning experience here.
Kristi Porter (06:08):
Yeah. And so what was that shift, um, to move into medicine? Did it, did it happen over time or did you just suddenly have an epiphany make? Uh,
Dr. Kevin Strathy (06:17):
It was just sort of a progression of, uh, excitement, I guess. Uh, I, I always, like I said, enjoy learning new things. And when I got into, uh, medical school, I was studying my basic sciences and my chemistry and thinking I was going to go for further with that. But once I got into surgery, I realized that, uh, surgery and my personality fit together very well. I always enjoyed fixing things, repairing things, building things. And as a reconstructive surgeon, that’s basically what I do on a daily basis. It’s just that I’m fixing and repairing human beings as opposed to broken furniture or something.
Kristi Porter (07:01):
Yeah. Fascinating. I never thought about it from that perspective.
Monica Roesch (07:05):
Yeah. And it’s just, it, it’s great. I think you have to have such a specific personality for doing this, so it’s great that you notice that before you went to chemistry, what were some of your professional experiences before the creation of Liberia medical relief? I know that you have already spoken about, uh, teaching two classes in the university of Minnesota while practicing there, but was there anything else that you did before you decided to, to create an organization like this one?
Dr. Kevin Strathy (07:38):
Oh, yes. I, um, I had always been involved in, uh, some form of charitable work. Uh, I had a very good friend who was a Ukrainian physician in Minneapolis, and he worked with the Ukrainian church and would bring children particularly over from Ukraine, for healthcare in the United States, in min apple, specifically. Uh, I was very active in helping a lot of those children. Uh, I was kind of a pushy guy. I would tell everybody we were gonna take care of these kids and nobody was getting paid and we were gonna use the, or, and the hospital wasn’t gonna get paid. And, uh, I never had, I never had any problems with telling everybody that they were gonna have to work and not get paid. And it just that’s great was the right thing to do. Yeah. I worked with some children from south America and did a lot in the, in Minneapolis for people that came to Minneapolis.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (08:34):
I had mentioned that I, uh, have a twin brother and in the, um, I want, I say it was in the early nineties. Uh, he went to an island off the east coast of Africa called Chemours. And he’d gotten in touch with these people through ham radio, which my father was doing and they needed help, uh, with orthopedic surgery. So, uh, for about five years, he would go over to this island called Chemours off the east coast of Africa and, uh, do orthopedic surgery over there. So that’s been in the family for, you know, quite a while. Wow.
Kristi Porter (09:13):
Yeah. Um, and through ham radio, I mean, that is not a story you hear every day either. That’s pretty fascinating.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (09:20):
Well, it’s kind of, it’s kind of interesting the, um, the ham radio operators, when they have their, their competitions, they want to get, be able to communicate with as many people around the world as they can. And so they get their little, um, uh, contacts. Well, the Chemours islands didn’t really have much in the way of ham radio. So one fellow went over and set up a, uh, a station over there. So he could talk to people all over the world and everybody in the world wanted to talk to him because it was such a unique place. Wow. Well, that is how it started. And then the, uh, the physicians over there, uh, started operating the ham radio and they were talking with my father. My father told him about his boys and, uh, one thing led to another and my brother ended up going over there for several years.
Kristi Porter (10:08):
Wow. How long did that relationship last?
Dr. Kevin Strathy (10:10):
Well, it, I think it was about five years and then there was some political unres and so, uh, it kind of fell apart.
Kristi Porter (10:19):
Yeah. Wow. What an interesting origin story though. Um, so we’ve mentioned now Liberia medical relief, a couple of times you’re coming to us today from Liberia. So I guess, tell us more about the mission. Tell us more about where you are right now. And of course you’ve mentioned a couple of places around the globe right now. So why Liberia specifically? Well,
Dr. Kevin Strathy (10:44):
The it’s a real simple answer. I’m married to a librarian.
Kristi Porter (10:47):
Ah, okay. That would do it. Wow.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (10:49):
Yeah. My, my wife is the librarian, uh, and she’s a nurse and, uh, she is the best nurse I’ve ever known her. And I’m not saying that because she’s my wife.
Kristi Porter (11:00):
Now we have it recorded for you.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (11:02):
She’s just, she is a superb nurse. Uh, she’s very well organized. She is a leader and, uh, she always wanted to give back to Liberia. Uh, so we came here, well, Liber is, you may know, uh, underwent, uh, some civil unrest and they had two civil wars. And, um, if you went back into the nineties, uh, Liberia was sort of the jewel of west Africa. It was a beautiful, beautiful country, very sophisticated. The graduates from the medical school here in those days could anywhere in the world, just like an American graduate could. Uh, but then there was civil war and, um, the, the country was really, really badly damaged. And so the there’s been rebuilding. There’s been peace now for, you know, a couple of decades. Uh, and so, uh, we came over originally in 2013, basically for her to be able to get a chance to come back home.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (12:07):
And for me to see where she was from and to see what we might be able to do when we got here, there were, were just maybe 200 doctors for about 4 million people. And a lot of the physicians really weren’t very well trained. Most of the good doctors had left and the need was just staggering. And one of the ways I describe it to people is the only thing that exceeds the need here is the surplus and the United States. We have so much surplus, uh, in, in all aspects of society in the United States, uh, in healthcare, we have, um, items that are discarded, uh, and, and they’re perfectly useful, the perfectly useful. And it isn’t just because of expiration dates, it’s because somebody changed what they wanted to do. Uh, they changed the company they wanted to work with and so on and so forth.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (13:00):
And there’s just, there’s warehouses all over the United States full of medical surplus equipment. And so that’s what we decided to do at first was to just get supplies. Um, if you recall, there was a tear Ebola outbreak here in 2014, and, uh, we had recognized some of the issues with not having enough gloves and gowns and masks and protective equipment. And so just kind of serendipitously that was, uh, uh, a lot of what was in our first container that came over 2014. And so we were able to distribute that around and get a little bit of a head start on Ebola. And then of course, Ebola took full force. What people don’t really understand is that, um, prior to this west African outbreak, the total number of deaths from Ebola in the recorded history was less than 200. And there were thousands, you know, over 10,000 deaths, uh, in the Ebola outbreak here in west Africa.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (14:07):
So that’s, that’s a, a huge, huge, uh, number. And it just is a, a testimon to how poor the medical infrastructure was over here. So we started doing everything we could to help rebuild it. And, uh, I provided surgical services. I’ve been training, uh, physicians here since, uh, 2014. And, uh, now we are established with one particular hospital. We are with a hospital called the 14 military hospital. It’s the first military hospital in history of Liberia. And we were asked to help, uh, get this hospital off the ground, trying to get a new hospital going is a tremendous undertaking. And the military had never done it. Uh, I’ve been, uh, on the board of hospitals and, uh, not too, as I said, is profoundly capable. So we came here and helped get this hospital started. So that’s, that’s where we’re located was the 14 military hospital, which is just outside of Monrovia in Liber.
Monica Roesch (15:15):
Yeah. And this, this story is amazing. And, and well, you can, uh, already explained a little bit of the next question, but still, I, I want to ask it because, well, we know that your wife not too, and you, well, you guys often gather medical cost supplies, um, in the us and ship them to Liberia the nation for hospitals and for the, the military hospital too. But how do you start to doing this? Um, and who helped you and what are some challenges that you haven’t found during this process? Because I know that you, you guys gather medical supplies with the help of other, uh, friends of yours who are also doctors or in the, in, in the health area. But I also know that sometimes you load them, uh, not in a hospital, but in a house, uh, with help of volunteers. So how do you manage to put all that emotional? Like, yeah. How do you do it
Dr. Kevin Strathy (16:15):
When you, you ask about the challenges? Uh, there there’s plenty. Um, what, the only way to do something like this is to really, really, truly believe in it. And so if you really believe in it, uh, the work is, uh, is not as much work it’s exhausting. Uh, we’ve shipped, I don’t know how many containers, um, we’re estimating it at about 400 tons of supplies. Uh, I don’t, I don’t know how close that is the real number, but it should be pretty close, but at every single item that has gone into the containers has been sorted and packed by not to and myself, mostly not to, uh, we do not ship garbage there’s, uh, a lot of times people will ship a container full of quote unquote medical supplies. And when it gets over here, half of it goes in the trash, cause it’s just useless stuff.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (17:16):
And, uh, we, we inspect everything. And so we started doing it out of our garage and, um, for years we never parked our cars in the garage and, uh, we would get, uh, help, uh, with packing and, uh, so on when we load the containers, we’re fortunate enough to have a good relationship with our county Sheriff’s department. And they bring the, uh, reliable inmates over from the county jail, and they do all the heavy lifting to get the containers back. We work with church groups and other groups, uh, friends, and so on to, uh, help get the containers, ready, help get the shipment ready. We have moved into a warehouse. Now we, uh, own a, uh, 3000 square foot warehouse, uh, where we can, uh, work now. So we don’t have to work out of well, that’s a little bit of how it matured.
Kristi Porter (18:11):
That’s fantastic. Um, I, I love even, yeah, all the people that have been able to be involved and participate as a stakeholder and feel like they have ownership in the mission, um, down to even utilizing the prison system. That’s really creative. Um, and so you, you’re involved from start to finish literally. Uh, so what does, I guess, what are some of the highlights for you? What are some of the, your favorite parts of being involved in the process?
Dr. Kevin Strathy (18:37):
Oh, well, for me, the biggest thing is the teaching. Uh, I’ve always loved teaching. And so, um, I’ve been able to watch some of the young doctors here or come out of the medical school, go through their training, mature into very capable young physicians, and now watching them, uh, strike out on their own. Uh, that’s probably the most rewarding thing. The second most rewarding thing of course is treating the children. And we get I as a plastic surgeon, I do burn and work. So we get some pretty awful things. And, uh, I take care of cancers and burns and all the sort of unpleasant things. Uh, but when you can take somebody who’s in a, in a real tough spot and, uh, give them some improvement and some hope and some, uh, uh, quality of life that that’s improving, uh, it is just, uh, you, the reward can’t be measured.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (19:35):
That’s all there is to it. It, yeah. And then, like I said, the teaching to me is just so exciting because I love to see the, uh, the young doctors get it. You know, when you, when you able to impart the knowledge onto somebody else so that you know, that it’s carrying on, uh, that’s profoundly rewarding. Uh, at one point here, uh, we got a little frustrated with the teaching hospital because we couldn’t get as much work done as we’d like. Uh, so we moved to a different hospital where we got a lot of work done. Uh, but it came down to give a man a fish, teach a man to fish kind of concept. And we realized we really had to teach this. And like I said, my brother was just here. And, uh, he talked to young librarian surgeons how to do a lot of very creative, uh, pediatric orthopedics, and now they’re gonna continue on with it. So we know we’re making a D yeah.
Kristi Porter (20:33):
Yeah. I was gonna ask, do you have any idea how many, uh, medical professionals you’ve trained over the years?
Dr. Kevin Strathy (20:39):
Oh, well, you know, I mean, over the years, I mean, I, I was involved with, uh, two different residency programs, you know, residency is the postgraduate, uh, specialty programs. Uh, I, I, I can’t even, you know, it was just a constant stream of, of, of young doctors and, you know, I graduated from medical school, uh, over 40 years ago. So it’s been a few years.
Kristi Porter (21:02):
Yeah. And do you know how many in Liberia?
Dr. Kevin Strathy (21:05):
Oh, here. Yeah. Um, yeah, probably I’ve had, well, you know, there’s, uh, the ones who are the real, um, the ones that have completed their training, there’s probably about a half dozen that, you know, from starting in, uh, 2000, well, actually it was because of Ebola. I didn’t get really involved in the teaching until about 2016. Yeah. So since 2016, we’ve had about, you know, about six or eight of the surgery residents come through that I’ve had, uh, plenty of, uh, good, strong contact with.
Kristi Porter (21:40):
Yeah. So you’re, you’re evening out that ratio a little bit.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (21:43):
Yeah. Yeah.
Monica Roesch (21:45):
So, uh, well, you’ve talked about some of the type of cases that you treat over during Liberia. Um, we talked about severe burns cancer and other very delicate stuff, but what has been one of the cases that most marked your career? Like what a very important case in, in, in the, your whole career, which has been more than four years now? So,
Dr. Kevin Strathy (22:13):
Well, um, I think the, uh, the cases that are the most memorable are the ones where I bring a skillset that nobody else has around here. And so there are cases that will sometimes be delayed, uh, when I, I used to come twice a year for a month, each time. And so there would be cases that would be waiting six months for me to arrive so that I could do some of those. Um, the, the most, uh, memorable ones are often some of the most unpleasant ones as small child with a cancer of the eye that, or you have to remove the eye, uh, and reconstruct that area. That’s very challenging, uh, severe burns children with severe burns who need extensive reconstructive surgery, just knowing that you’re giving them a chance to, to survive. These are, these are not lethal injuries, but they are, um, crippling, profoundly crippling injuries. And so you give the children a, a greater quality of life. Those are the most rewarding ones.
Monica Roesch (23:24):
Wow.
Kristi Porter (23:24):
Is there an average age of victim over there? Is it
Dr. Kevin Strathy (23:30):
Burn? You know, people ask me why are there so many burns over there? I say, there’s just so many burns in the United States. The thing is, is that if you’re in a developed country and you get burned, you’re gonna be treated. We don’t even have a burn unit over here. So, uh, it’s been one of my fantasies is to actually establish a true burn unit, but, uh, people get burned everywhere in the world. Um, but if you are somewhere in a developed country, you’ll be transported very quickly to a sophisticated burn center and get treated here. We don’t have that. And so, uh, the, um, there was a, a group of young doctors who did a study on what was going on with pediatric burns here. And unfortunately the mortality rate in a serious pediatric burn here was 80%. And so, uh, that should be down around 20%. And so, uh, we’ve got a lot long ways to go, uh, on trying to at least, you know, save the lives and then improve the lives of those that we do save.
Kristi Porter (24:33):
Yeah, for sure. Um, well, in your, your mission for Liberia, uh, medical relief, you talk about your goal is to continue to help people who are suffering. So where, where did that specifically come from? What does that mean for you each day?
Dr. Kevin Strathy (24:47):
Well, you know, the, uh, when you, when you get into an environment like this, especially the way it was in 2013, and I can tell you things have gotten a lot better in the last nine years, but when you see that, uh, you’re really compelled to, uh, to do what you can to make it, even if it’s a small difference, it’s a, it makes a difference. Um, there’s, uh, you, it’s really almost hard to put into words. Uh, the, uh, people who think they’re, they’re, uh, not well off in the United States are better off than the vast majority of the people here. Uh, you don’t really understand what poverty is in the United States. I mean, sure. There’s people who are impoverished, but not to the level that it is here, the people here, uh, um, I, I, I don’t know exactly what the number is now, but they say they at the average librarian probably lives on about $2 a day.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (25:51):
Uh, minimum wage was about $90 at one point, uh, $90 a month at one point. And, you know, it’s awfully hard to live on that. Uh, it’s very subsistence living. Uh, most people don’t have automobiles. People don’t have, uh, things that we take for granted in the United States or in Mexico, you know, there’s, uh, it’s, uh, it’s one of these things that when you get in, when I first got here, Liberia was the fourth poorest country in the world, and it just is it’s orders of magnitude worse than, than just about any you’ll see in, in the developed world. So it’s not hard to get motivated. I mean, you, you see what’s going on, you see what you can do as an individual. You see what we can do as an organization. And, uh, it’s just about impossible to say, no, my brother who just left, uh, you know, we’re, we’re, we’re getting older, we’re in our late sixties. And so, um, uh, we’re slowing down a little bit, but when he left, he said, well, uh, I’ll be back in about six months. And so that’s, uh, that that’s just the mental, you just gotta keep doing what you can do.
Monica Roesch (27:05):
Definitely. And well, I just wanted tell you that you are an amazing person, and because of all, what you do, you general only help people to reconstruct their life or, or kill from these horrible burns, but also you teach them you’re in other country that, and have taken it if, if it was your country. So congratulations for what you’re doing for what you’re teaching for all the heart and passion that you’re putting into this, because you mentioned earlier that the only way to make this happen, if, is if you truly believe in this, and we can tell that you do your are involved in everything in going back to the USA, gathering the material, making sure that it it’s useful, packaging it, and then getting other people involved into the shipping and then being a Liberia to receive it. That’s just, it, it, it’s crazy. And I know that there are a lot of challenges. I remember, number one day, uh, where you were telling me, we really need to load this container because I’m gonna fly to, to Liberia tomorrow. This cannot wait. So
Dr. Kevin Strathy (28:14):
Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (28:15):
You know, this, this current supply chain problem that we’re having now is unique. Uh, for anybody who’s listening out there, I can tell you that they, global logistics has been wonderful. Uh, we’ve gotten great service. And what she’s referring to is this last time we were supposed to load a container and the container didn’t show up. So we were pretty upset, but, uh, everybody got to work and we got the, we got the container the next day and loaded it and got over here. So I appreciate the work you guys put into it because I know it’s, uh, the last year or two has been tough for you guys.
Monica Roesch (28:52):
Yeah. Thanks a lot. And it’s been incredibly challenging for everyone. There’s a lot of things happening that we cannot control that we also take this, your mission like personally. So for me, it’s like, no, there’s no way that we don’t ship this. We need to do it. So we just try our best. And I’m glad to, to be able to say that we are contributing a little bit in, in the mission that you, that you have. So I just want to ask you one more question, what’s coming next. Uh, what are your, your plans for, for, well, what you do
Dr. Kevin Strathy (29:30):
Well, what’s coming next is, uh, natu and I, so I retired in the United States at the end of 2020. And so natu and I are here, uh, on a much closer to full-time basis. And so, uh, this hospital we’re in, has been open six months and, uh, we have all kinds of ideas about what needs to be done to, uh, improve the hospital, to take it to the next level and so on and so forth. So we’ve got, I probably, uh, well, I’m gonna guess three to four years of development here. And during that time, we’ll certainly be calling you to help us get some supplies over here. We’re working harder on raising, uh, larger sums of money to try to get some more, uh, purchase equipment. Uh, the vast majority of everything that we’ve shipped has been donated. Uh, of course we do have to purchase some things, but it’s all been kept on, uh, fairly, uh, economic scale. Uh, we’re trying to, uh, change that little bit and try to get some, uh, higher quality equipment, some new equipment. Uh, and so, um, we’ll see how successful we are in that endeavor.
Kristi Porter (30:46):
Yeah. Sounds like there, uh, might be a specific burn unit in the future as well.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (30:51):
Yeah. Yeah. Just send money. Yes,
Kristi Porter (30:55):
Yes, for sure. So speaking of, um, tell us about, tell, uh, everyone who’s listening, how they can connect with you and continue to learn more about your work and get that money to you, um, or yeah. Provide, uh, new and new medical equipment.
Dr. Kevin Strathy (31:11):
Yeah. Okay. Well, we have a, uh, a Facebook page called Liberia medical relief that we post on. Uh, regularly. We have a website, uh, library, medical relief.com, uh, and you know, I have to confess it isn’t as isn’t updated as often as I would like it to be. But I think both of them have a, um, uh, a link to a PayPal account. So we, the Liberia medical relief has a PayPal account. It’s simply Dr. strati@liberiamedicalrelief.org, which was our old website. Uh, that’s still the email that that’s linked to the, um, the PayPal account. Uh, that’s the, that’s the only electronic, uh, method we use, uh, that works things can be, we, we have an address of it’s 30, a KC court south. That’s a C a C I a Acaia court, south lake PLA Florida, 33 85 2. And if somebody wants to send a donation, uh, by check, it can go to that address. And, and we’ll, we certainly try to keep all of our donors, uh, prized as to what we’re doing. And, and of course, all we’re a 5 0 1 [inaudible] [inaudible] corporation. So all, all, uh, donations are, you know, eligible for tax deduction. And so we we’d be more than happy to accept any donations.
Kristi Porter (32:36):
Yes, absolutely. A terrific cause for sure.
Monica Roesch (32:39):
Thanks a lot. Well, thanks a lot, Dr. Kevin for being here today with us to all of you for joining us and seeing the next one.
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Dr. Kevin Strathy is a 1980 graduate of the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine and a Board Certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon. Along with his wife, Natu, a registered nurse and native Liberian, he founded Liberia Medical Relief to provide medical supplies, surgical services and teaching to Liberia. In 2021 they retired after 36 years of practice in the US and currently reside in Liberia where they were instrumental in establishing Liberia’s first Military Hospital. It is estimated that Dr. Strathy and Natu have shipped over 400 tons of equipment and supplies, and exclusively utilize Vector Global Logistics for their shipping needs.
Monica Aurora Roesch Davila has a Bachelor’s degree in Management and International Business from Universidad Panamericana in Aguascalientes, Mexico. She has work experience in purchasing, logistics, and sales for automotive companies, and is currently working at Vector handling some non-profit accounts and helping them achieve their goals. She also develops new accounts and plans with them the better routes and strategies for them to have efficient and cost-effective operations.
Monica believes that everything we do matters and that we can make a difference and impact the world in a positive way with our daily actions, so she tries to do her best every day.
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