OJAI : Women Volunteer to Aid Gulf Relief Organization

Every Monday, several Ojai women drive to Santa Barbara and spend the morning sorting pills, packaging syringes and folding sheets, blankets and hospital gowns for shipment to the Persian Gulf.

Virginia Hill, Hattie Bowie, Susan Mushaney and Marian Greenfield are among 40 volunteers from Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties who donate their time to Direct Relief International, a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit organization that sends medical supplies to victims of natural disasters and wars.

The Ojai women’s volunteer work has not changed much since the war began. “We usually spend a four-hour day and have lunch together,” said Hill, who celebrated her 80th birthday Sunday.

DRI ships medicine and supplies donated by pharmaceutical companies to hospitals and refugee camps in 44 countries, including Jordan and Turkey, Executive Director Ann Carlos said. It also refurbishes and sends out used hospital equipment, such as surgical lamps and cardiac monitors.

“The reason that we are particularly effective with relief work is because we actually have a stockpile of items, which can be shipped immediately,” Carlos said.

“I’ve worked in antibiotics and in ointments and in pills,” said Hill, a volunteer since 1964 who has done everything from tearing up old sheets for cotton bandages to repackaging pills from sample-sized packages into larger vials.

“At the present time, we pack linens and hospital gowns,” said Bowie, 79, a retired Ojai city clerk.

“Hospitals use them until they’re a little worn” and then give them away, she said.

Rolled cotton bandages are in constant demand because they can be boiled and reused, Carlos said. Refugee camps have no room to store disposable goods, she said.

“Our aid is targeted specifically to civilians,” Carlos said.

DRI sends supplies to three Jordanian refugee camps.

On Friday, an 8,000-pound shipment was sent to refugees on the Turkey-Iraq border, she said.

“We do not work with governments at all except during times of crisis,” Carlos said.

“Normally we work one on one with specific medical facilities or, in this case, refugee camps.”

DRI received more than $12 million in supplies and equipment from hospitals and pharmaceutical companies last year, Carlos said.

Most donations come from residents of Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties and are used to fund the shipment of the donated goods and the salaries of 24 full- and part-time staff members.

DRI has received $970,000 in donations in the past year.

Since the war in the Persian Gulf began, “there has definitely been an increase in the number of checks,” Carlos said.

“We’re supported by people who usually send us $25 to $30.”

Donations for DRI’s gulf relief efforts may be sent to P.O. Box 30820, Santa Barbara 93130.