SOS INTERNATIONAL
Who We Are: SOS is a global health organization that addresses inequities in healthcare by redistributing surplus medical supplies to those who urgently need them. Founded in 1993 by local surgeon Dr. Norton Waterman, this nimble nonprofit has collected over $66 million in surplus supplies and given them to hundreds of underserved communities in our own backyard and across the globe. From Eastern Kentucky to West Louisville, from Ghana to Ukraine, from Ethiopia to Cuba, SOS supplies clinics, hospitals, homeless shelters, displacement camps, disaster relief efforts, animal rescues and individuals in need– creating millions of stories of health and hope.
How We Serve the Community: SOS impacts over a quarter of a million local lives annually by elevating medical care at underserved facilities, supporting health education in underserved schools and promoting future global citizenship through programming for our student volunteers. SOS provided the first West End CNA school with supplies they needed to open their doors, supported a “mini med school” for hundreds of JCPS students, provided an oxygenator to Oldham County Animal Rescue to stabilize critically injured animals and gifted a motorized wheelchair to a young double amputee. By sharing our region’s surplus, we spread health and hope through Louisville and beyond.
What We Do: SOS supports organizations and individuals in urgent need with supplies donated by healthcare systems. One beautiful example is the work being done by partner Dr. Seth Wanye who is waging a battle against preventable blindness in Ghana. This ophthalmologist provides free cataract surgeries to impoverished children and adults– restoring sight to hundreds of patients every month using supplies provided by SOS. Other recipients include a children’s hospital in the Dominican Republic, an orphanage in Nigeria, a mother and children’s home in Owensboro, safety-net clinics in the West and South End and an EMT program at Fairdale High School.
How You Can Help: • Consider making a gift. We rely on compassionate donors to make our work possible. Learn more or give at soshealthandhope/donate. • Join us at our largest annual fundraiser, our Health and Hope Breakfast, on Wednesday, March 20, at The Olmsted. Tickets are free. Reservations are available at soshealthandhope.org/breakfast. • Host a “Sip and Sort!” These evenings of wine and volunteerism are a fun way to combine socializing and philanthropy. Email Christine. Fellingham@soshealthandhope.org for inquiries. • Become a corporate partner. Join local companies like UPS, Anthem and Norton Healthcare and sign your company up for an afternoon of team building at SOS.
Why We’re Important: SOS is one of five organizations in the US certified to refurbish biotech equipment for safe redistribution back to communities. Our mission not only elevates health equity, it does so through a sustainability lens, diverting 5 million pounds of medical items from landfills in a decade. SOS excels at targeting areas where supplies have the most impact, reducing maternal mortality rate by 24 percent in three months at St. Anne’s hospital in Ghana, providing hundreds of first aid kits to the city’s unhoused and providing mobility aids to the first JCPS wheelchair basketball team so young players can play independently and safely.
SOS International 1500 Arlington Ave., Louisville, KY 40206 502.736.6360 soshealthandhope.org Facebook: @SOSinternational Instagram: @sos_international_inc CEO & President: Denise Sears / denise.sears@soshealthandhope.org Board Chair: Jim Perry
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