Santa Barbara, Calif. - Humanitarian medical aid organization Direct Relief International is preparing additional emergency medical material assistance to assist health centers and evacuation shelters serving those affected by Hurricane Ike, which made landfall in Galveston, Texas Friday evening as a Category Two storm.

Four sites will each receive specifically requested materials on Tuesday via overnight airfreight, generously donated by FedEx:

• Amistad Community Health Center, Corpus Christi, TX
• Texas Association of Community Health Centers (TACHC) Distribution Center, Austin, TX
• Primary Health Services Center, Monroe, LA
• United Community Health Center, Eunice, LA

Longtime corporate donors Abbott, BD, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Covidien, CVS, GlaxoSmithKline, Henry Schein, Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, Matrixx, Merck, Miltex, Nexxus, sanofi-aventis, and Schering-Plough have given their product for use at these sites.

In addition to continued coordination with TACHC and the National Association of Community Health Centers, Direct Relief is working with the Lone Star Association of Charitable Clinics (LSACC), which represents 57 clinics throughout the state. LSACC is assisting Direct Relief in obtaining the medical material needs of its membership.

Since September 1, Direct Relief has supplied its medical safety-net partners in Texas and Louisiana with nearly $400,000 in medical material aid to assist their response to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

Two members of Direct Relief's domestic programs team will arrive in Louisiana on Sunday, and will be surveying clinic sites and evacuation centers throughout the week. Many evacuation shelters set up for Gustav are now serving those affected by Ike.

One such shelter in Shreveport, Louisiana, is being served by the Martin Luther King Health Center, a recipient of one of the 18 hurricane preparedness packs Direct Relief sent to safety-net clinics throughout the Gulf in July. According to e-mail messages from Janet Mentesane, executive director of the center, "The shelter calls in or emails medication orders, we fill them at the clinic, and then take them to the shelter. So far it is running smoothly with what we are doing."

About Direct Relief International
Founded in 1948, Direct Relief International is a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit organization focused on improving the quality of life by bringing critically needed medicines and supplies to local healthcare providers worldwide. Direct Relief works in 59 countries and has delivered more than $1 billion in privately funded humanitarian medical aid to health professionals serving impoverished communities since 2000. Direct Relief is one of two charities ranked by Forbes that has received a perfect fundraising efficiency score for five consecutive years and is ranked by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as California's largest international nonprofit organization based on private support. For more information, please visit www.DirectRelief.org.

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