Moving change forward

Left to right: Mary Ackenhusen, Brent Corey, Nigel Myatt, Mahmud Alhit, Rian Dodds, Salah Maayouf and Wahbi Ghambour.

In February 2011, a worried Mahmud Alhit watched from his Vancouver home as a revolution unfolded in his home country of Libya.

“For 42 years there was corruption with the Gadhafi dictatorship,” said Mahmud, who lost friends and family during the revolution, “and after the revolution, we started to move forward. Things are getting better, but there’s a lot of damage it will take years to see that change.”

He pauses for a few seconds.

“I want to help that change move forward.”

So in the following month, Mahmud started to create that change by forming the BC Camp for Libya, a group that collects donated hospital and medical supplies and sends them to Libya.

Since 2011, VGH has donated three shipping containers of supplies which have included close to 200 hospital beds, 20 stretchers, 100 wheelchairs, and a few ultrasound machines. VGH has also donated smaller, but equally as essential supllies, like syringes, linens, crutches, masks and feeding tubes, which were sent to Libya by air.

During the revolution, 50,000 of Mahmud’s compatriots lost their lives with thousands more who were injured and lost their limbs.

Nigel Myatt, a patient care aid at VGH, has been instrumental in connecting Mahmud and the BC Camp for Libya with the donations.

“This was stuff just sitting around in the hospital and I thought that it could be put to better use,” said Nigel. He has also helped collect donations for African and Nicaraguan charities as well. “I enjoy this work because I’ve met a lot of good, interesting people since it started. We’re pretty fortunate here and the people in Libya, right now, have nothing – I think we have a moral responsibility to at least try to help.”

Mahmud said the donations are really appreciated.

“People there are really happy,” he said. “We’ve received a lot of thank-you and appreciation letters from Libya. But of course, they’re still in need for more.”

If you would like to make a donation, bins are set up around VGH and Nigel says he is always looking for volunteers.

“We could use some extra hands to help sort out the donations we get,” he said.

If you’re interested in helping the BC Camp for Libya, contact Nigel here.