Yonkers group sends medical supplies to Haiti

Helping Haiti

Yonkers-based Afya Foundation collects unused medical supplies and equipment from throughout the New York area to be used around the world. Volunteers have been working hard to pack and ship supplies to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

YONKERS, N.Y. - For the past three days, volunteers at the Afya Foundation have been in overdrive putting in a tireless effort to pack up medical supplies — everything from gauze pads to syringes — to send to Haiti.

Yonkers-based Afya has been on the frontlines of natural disasters including Haiti's massive quake in 2010. Following Saturday's earthquake there, founder and CEO Danielle Butin mobilized her troops immediately and got her rescue efforts underway.

"Very quickly, we got these lists of supplies that they needed — everything from surgical instruments to medical supplies," Butin said. "And then we are working well with JetBlue who donated the air to us and everything started coming together very quickly."

Afya packs the supplies into giant duffel orange bags to be shipped where they're needed — in this case, Haiti. For every $250 Afya receives, it can fill one bag.

The first flight carrying more than 1,300 pounds of medical supplies worth $84,000 touched down in Haiti Tuesday afternoon and some of them were already being delivered.

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Interview with public advocate

FOX 5 NY's Lori Stokes spoke to New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. He talked about sending aid to Haiti and his meeting with Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul.