New life for uniforms
5 September 2011
Recycled clothing boost for overseas health
workers
Caregivers from across St John of God Health Care have made
valuable contributions to health workers in developing countries by
donating their old uniforms.
Having been provided with new uniforms across the organisation
in early 2011, staff were encouraged to return their previous
workwear to divisional collection points 
and, by the end
of August, more than 250 boxes had been accumulated across
Australia and New Zealand.
The uniforms collected have been distributed by Rotary
International with batches already sent to hospitals and healthcare
organisations in East Timor, Tanzania, Kenya, India and Fiji. A
further batch is due to be sent to a health development project in
the Philippines with more uniforms likely to be sent to Papua New
Guinea and African nations once sorting through the thousands of
items is complete.
Victoria-based Rotarian, Laurie Fisher, said: “What was so
pleasing about the uniforms donated by St John of God was that they
were in such good condition. That made it very easy for us to
forward the clothing on to the health organisations in need of
support in developing countries.
“Nurses and other health workers in these countries usually have
very little so it is a big gesture for them to be provided with a
smart, clean uniform. We have ongoing relationships with the
projects where we distribute these uniforms so we know they are
being used where there is a genuine, ongoing need for them.”
St John of God Health Care’s Group Environmental Engineer, Dean
Farnsworth, commended the group-wide effort from caregivers having
been overwhelmed by the response.
“Obviously changing uniforms for thousands of caregivers across
many different sites is a major logistical operation, but we wanted
to ensure the old uniforms could be put to good use if at all
possible,” Dean said. “It is a fantastic effort to collect more
than 250 large boxes of uniforms and very reassuring to know that
they will be put to good use where there is a strong community
need.”
St John of God Health Care also plays an active role in health
development with some of our near neighbours in the Asia-Pacific
region. More information on our international health
programs.