June 16, 2023 • 30 mins
Walter Ulrich is the CEO of Medical Bridges (and a US Marine) and Akinyi Adoyo is their marketing manager. Medical Bridges has clinics built inside of shipping containers! These awesome portable clinics have plumbing, beds, and the tech necessary to perform all sorts of medical exams and procedures. Built by Texas A&M students, they are then shipped to poor communities to serve people who would otherwise have little to no access to healthcare. Medical Bridges also ships tons of surplus medical equipment and Akinyi explains how this process takes place. They have the complicity of our medical centers which are very generous. You can help them do more by going to: www.medicalbridges.org. You can donate, volunteer and just spread the word.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:06):
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston'spublic affairs show, an iHeart Media broadcast.
Our disclaimers says that the opinions expressedon this show do not necessarily reflect
those held by this radio station,its management staff, for any of its
advertisers. My name is laurent Iam the Texan from France, and my
(00:27):
guests today are from an organization calledMedical Bridges. They're literally in the business
of taking portable hospitals, little portableclinics, let's call them clinics, as
a hospital is always big. Theseare portable clinics that are built inside of
truck trailers, and that trailer isloaded onto a big boat and sent all
(00:48):
across the world to communities that arepoor, underserved, and generally forgotten by
humanity. And this little clinic ina box can then just be trucked over
into a small community, opened upwith a doctor or a team of nurses,
and suddenly you can have people getglasses, get a vaccine for their
kids, get something fixed up.That would have been something that would have
(01:14):
cost them a lot of time andmoney. They might have had to travel
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of milesto the nearest town. You can imagine
some small town in South America,for instance. They might be several mountain
valleys away from the nearest clinic,and you could imagine the luxury of having
one of these little clinics just showup bust in, so to speak.
(01:37):
These clinics are designed by Texas Aand M students. We're going to talk
about all this. It's an amazingprogram and you can see online what it
all looks like at medical Bridges dotorg. Medical bridges dot org. My
guest are Aikeni Adoyo and Walter Ulric. Walter is the CEO of Medical Bridges
(01:57):
and Aikeni is their marketing anger.Akene is from Kenya and we were just
talking about how she's going back toKenya for Christmas when it will be summer.
But it doesn't get too warm,No, it doesn't get too warm,
especially if you're in Narabi. Yeah, it gets warmer when you could
get closer to the ocean in Mombasa. And you just told me something that
(02:20):
fascinates me. There's a national parkin Nairobi, so this is kind of
like Houston. We have a memorialpark near downtown. I was telling Akena
that memorial Park. People don't knowthis, but Memorial Park is something like
four or five times the size ofNew York's famous Central Park, especially if
you consider the Arboretum, which absolutelyis a part of Memorial Park, is
(02:40):
just sectioned off and you can't rideyour bike down there because bikers are crazy.
I know because I'm one of them. Had a guy I was I
was crossing paths with this guy onthe street and he says, where a
helmet? And I said, wherea muzzle? Walter. You do have
(03:01):
an extraordinary organization, and what I'vedescribed is science fiction in a way,
but it exists. You have TexasA and M students that are building clinics
instead of containers that we see onships and the back of trucks all the
time. Could you explain to usa little bit how that works. And
while you listen to people, ifyou go to Medical Bridges dot org you
(03:23):
can contribute. There are ways tojust buy a bush loads of useful stuff
to send out all over the world. It doesn't have to be a clinic.
We'll talk about that, but theseclinics are sort of your your calling
card. It's a brilliant idea,it's genius, really Laurent's it's great for
Kenny United to be back with you. Yeah, thanks so much for having
(03:45):
us. You have a way ofdrawing out the most important information. You
know, if all of the youwho look at our website, you're going
to see pages and pages out ofstuff. And Laurent nailed it right away.
Go look at what we're doing withour Texas Aggie students. They are
absolutely amazing. What essentially they do. They raise a little bit of money
(04:05):
and they buy a used forty footmaritime sea container and in the spring,
thirteen hundred Texas A and M studentswill work throughout the spring semester to make
five or six of these clinics ina box with plumbing and with all kinds,
with an air conditioner, with agenerator, with lighting, ceiling fans,
(04:28):
and even a curtain for patient privacy, something you rarely see in the
developing world. And then they sendthem to us and we provide the exam
tables and if there's a specially ifit's designed for specialty, all the equipment
and supplies they need, and thenit's shipped from Medical Bridges facility to the
Port of Houston where it's sent aroundthe world. They you know, when
(04:51):
we never thought Laurent that we wouldever support the Bahamas because it's really not
a developing country until a couple ofyears go when Dorian get through and flattened
parts of the Bahamas, and sowe immediately repurposed two of those clinics to
go somewhere where they didn't even havea building to treat the patients, the
(05:12):
people who are injured by Hurricane Dorian. And the minute they got there,
they opened the doors, the doctorswere there and they immediately started treating patients.
That's what those clinics do around theworld. So we when you imagine
these containers, they're bare. It'sjust you know, it's a piece of
the rectangular metal basically, so youdo have to install plumbing. It's kind
(05:35):
of fascinating. So you basically redecorateor you make the inside like a miniature
doctor's office. Absolutely it is.It looks if you walk in there,
it's a smaller version, yeah,of your doctor's office here in Houston,
Texas. It's got everything. It'sgot flooring, it's got ceiling panels,
(05:58):
it's got lights. The air canconditioning is crucial. Obviously, air conditioning
and a fridge for all the medicalstuff that you might keep a refrigerator.
Is that part of the deal.It depends on what that clinic is going
to be used for. We've hadone that was a dental clinic. We've
had one that was an eye clinic. Most of them are general purpose clinics.
Some of them are designed for maternity. I wow, They're a little
(06:25):
bit like private planes. When youbuy a private plane. My understanding as
you buy a shell and if youif you want to install a shower or
a pool like some Saudi king youcan they do that. Yeah, it's
dumb, and they do that.If you think pool in plane is dumb,
it is it is. So thisis sort of the same, but
way more useful to weigh more people. But it's extraordinary how you can sort
(06:47):
of outfit these So I guess withspring that will come up well, and
it'll be in a while. Butyou're going to have these students at A
and M university outfit several of theseclinics and they're going to be a little
bit different from each other. You'llhave purposed some of them for certain areas,
like for dentistry and motherhood. Yeah, the purposing comes when it gets
(07:09):
to medical bridges, so there's astandard design, yeah, yeah, And
then it depends do you put ina dental chair or an exam table?
Yeah? Do you put in theeye doctor stuff right? Or do you
put in something else? And oneexample, you know, they're they're literally
all over the world right now.In one case, they're in front of
(07:30):
a bomb hospital in a country that'sat war, treating patients that have been
injured. In another case, andthis is South Sudan. South Sudan is
one of the poorest countries in theworld. You know, in the US,
out of every hundred thousand births,you have about twelve infant mortality out
of every hundred thousand births, soit's rare in most countries. It's the
(07:54):
count is out of every hundred thousand. In South Sudan, the count is
out of every hundred births, sixbabies out of every hundred live births will
die and one or two moms.So we sent so two out of one
hundred moms will also die. Oneor two moms will also giving births,
so you have seven to eight deathsout of every one hundred live births.
(08:18):
And so with the help of thekids from Texas, A and M.
And they're not kids. They're reallyyoung adults, way smarter than I was
when I was their age. Theyshould be. They're younger than us.
If they're not smarter, if theyoung aren't smarter, they failed. But
we had to send two because ofthe religious beliefs there. If we only
(08:39):
sent one, it would be amen's clinic because the men and women can't
in that part of so house toDan go to the same facility for medical
care. So we've sent two.On the women's one, you can see
hundreds and hundreds of women lined upwith Burker's celebrating. On the men's side,
you see men in jeeps and pickup trucks shooting off a K forty
(09:01):
sevens in the air. It isthink of this, two clinics in a
box with surplus meadow equipment supplies isbigger than a Bistelle Day or July fourth
celebration in South Sudan. So whenthe clinics arrive, the men celebrate,
and yeah, they like to firetheir their colashnik coughs in the air.
Yes, you know, of coursethey're going to celebrate. It's yeah,
(09:22):
but you don't have to shoot weaponsin the air, those bullets come back
down. They have. They hadthat problem in South American Central America too,
Bang bang, Thank goodness, there'sa clinic to treat them when the
bullets come bad. Is the clinicbullet proof? Is what we want to
know. The women are being setaside, basically their second class citizens in
(09:46):
those in those countries. Still,I'm saying that, that's my opinion,
and I am saying it because Iwant to point out the generosity of our
country, which is often being criticizedfor being misogynists and a racists and all
the things which we are a lotless than the rest of the world.
And we have an organization here provingthat once they've identified the need, they'll
(10:07):
go out their way and spend literallythousands upon thousands of dollars and man hours
and just to make sure that thewomen and the men both get what they
need. We're not we're not cuttinganybody out. We're just going to try
to help as many people as possible. It's a really interesting subject. You
are listening to Houston, PA,Houston's Public Affairs Show. My name is
(10:30):
Laurent and my guest are Akeni Adoyo. She is the marketing manager for Medical
Bridges and Walter Ulrich is their CEO. And by the way, Walter is
a US Marine Corps retired. Theman has been serving our community for a
long time. I want to talka little bit about these humanitarian vouchers you
(10:50):
mentioned before we started recording, becauseone of the places you're going into is
Ukraine. This is a political They'reonly sending these clinics and medical supplies.
It's only about helping civilians, okay. And my question, because I'm one
of those guys, it's okay,well for doing this a politically. You're
sending help to Ukraine to help thekids of Ukraine who shall not be blamed
(11:13):
for what's going on. What aboutthe Russian kids who are just as blameless
to me? And you explain tome that you can't actually get a voucher
to go in there right now?Is that right? Well? Or they
haven't asked you. We haven't beenasked. So Medical Bridges is a political.
Yes, Walter, the former Marinemight have a political view, but
it's none of our business. Youhave one that Kenny may have one,
(11:35):
right, But when it comes toMedical Bridges, we will serve anybody who
has any needs. A great exampleof this is when COVID first hit Yuhan
before it hit the US, theymake the masks and they were running low,
and we sent five thousand masks,which is a drop in the bucket
(11:58):
to Wuhan, but it's a gesturehelped them with COVID, and six months
later after it hit US, theysent us twenty thousand mass back. It
is people to people. We believewe are all one people, one world,
and if we considered that more seriously, we'd get along much more seriously
too. And so we'll serve anybodyin need. And as a humanitarian nonprofit,
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we have waivers for a lot ofcountries that we see as adversaries when
it comes to competition in the world. But you know, if they have
a need and we can get aclear path into the country that will serve
the people in need, not haveit redirected someplace else, then we'll serve
(12:46):
those people. That, by theway, is one of the great things
about medical bridges. You're not givingmoney to be sent to some kind of
Banana Republic dictator, to use acliche. You're sending materials and just as
you said, Walter, you vetthese destinations you make sure that the clinic,
for example, is going to beput on a truck and sent to
(13:07):
the right place, and that there'sgoing to be nurse practitioners or doctors ready
to serve in that clinic precisely.But in my understanding is basically Russia has
an asked you to come, andthat's understandable because well of the situation we're
essentially at war with them. Butthere's other countries that won't actually give you
a humanitarian waiver at all. NorthKorea is unsurprisingly one of them. Yeah,
(13:28):
the US government does, okay,does have I think three countries,
and I recall that North Korea isone of them. I think Iran is
one of them. And I believethe third country maybe a part of Syria,
but not all of Syria, butI'd have to look it up.
But other than that will serve anycountry. There's Ethiopia, there's Djibouti.
(13:52):
Jibouti is a country that has lesspopulation than Houston has. Really wow,
And that is the ninety first countrythat we served last year. The countries
we serve around the world, soyou're serving the only one. Now that's
that's your gount that's the latest countand you're not just sending a ken you
you're not just sending clinics. You'resending all these these supplies. When you
(14:13):
guys they welcomed me on the tourlast year, it was really awesome.
I got to see their warehouse andyou've got this really impressive array of stuff
that is donating. Well, bythe way, can you We have to
we have to explain to our audiencehow you guys work, because all this
stuff you're sending to this country isactually donated to you. It's a hospital
surplus run that by us. Becauseit boggles my mind, right, it's
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mind boggling. So a lot ofour supplies comes mostly from Texas Medical Center,
so um, and we'll also getsome clinics that are you know,
helping us. And now we havejust opened a location in San Antonio and
we are getting new partners that aredonating medical supplies as well, so we
(14:56):
are super grateful to them for that. So you have a Medical Bridges location
in San Antonio. Now, Yes, Walter with their own CEO, with
a managing director or women named SarahChianti, who's who has just a star
in Santano. She's been creating partnershipsand relationships. Yes, exactly, exactly.
So they get the supplies and thenour tracks, our box truck will
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go to San Antonio and applies intoour facility and we will stop them,
we'll pack them, and then we'llship them to whatever it's needed. Yeah.
So your San Antonio office does thesame thing with their medical centers.
They collect a bunch of donations aswell. Yes, so we have a
we have some clinics that have donated. Yes, so these supplies. It's
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mind boggling the amount of waste thatcomes out of the hospital system. And
we're not going to be mad aboutit for two reasons. Number one,
it makes sense and number two,a lot of times they're doing good things
with it. But Raquini, wehave to explain that in order for me
to go in for a hernia operation, for instance, the surge is going
to order all these tools that hemight need on my body, including the
(16:03):
emergency stuff which he won't use orshe won't use. So they put it
all out. But once it's beenunwrapped and prepared, it can't be put
back into the system because it's waytoo expensive to clean it and rewrap it
and the hospitals would need an entirenew building to do this exactly. Well,
I have to say, Walter explainedall this to me in the previous
interviews. I'm just repeating the information. You're doing a good job thing,
(16:26):
but it's mind boggling. It's theamounts, the amounts of when we're talking
about really expensive stuff sometimes right likegive us some example dialysis machines, there's
also the stuff that gets old orthey replace it with something that's newer and
better. All right, and nowyou have a dialysis machine that's just a
(16:48):
year and a half old but doesn'thave the new due Hickey on it,
and it works perfectly, and you'resending it to Kenya front or we have
a tech on site that will looklook into the medical equipment and will make
sure that each one is working,put a label on it before we send
it out. I remember this fellow, even though I've forgotten his name,
Brian, Brian Williams, the realone who doesn't lie. And the reason
(17:15):
he doesn't lies because unlike the oneon TV, this Brian Williams reads the
instruction. But what I thought wasextraordinary about meaning this man is that he
is self taught. He knows howto work all these machines. I can't
work him, but I could learnthem just like he did. And he
just he learned by reading all theseinstruction manuals. And I'm like renaissance man
in the flesh. That's all thoseautodiet acts. All those people that have
(17:38):
taught themselves have done it this way. Is brilliant. He's amazing. He
does all the research. That's justso he actually gets the machine and figures
out if it works or not byreading the instructions, and then he fixes
it. And then he fixes it'sblind boggling. It's just what an amazing
team of people. So but backto this, to the quote unquote waste
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from the hospitals, this is asystem that just produces all of these surplus.
It's not wasted're getting get back andit's absolutely necessary. And for years,
for decades, would it would justgo to the landfill for dacades it,
We'll go to the landfills. Soif we don't rescue it, then
it ends up in the landfills.I just so you have a network now,
(18:23):
I guess Walter, you work withyour partners in town, the Texas
Medical Center and all that. Yeah, many of the institutions of the Texas
Medical Center are very generous donors.We do a lot of work in children's
hospitals around the world, and soTexas Children's as a partner. This year
for our Galea, we're honoring DavidCalendar of Memorial Herman. Memorial Herman has
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been a huge partner for us overthe years. But it is most of
the institutions of the Medical Center doctorsand dentists when they're retiring or upgrading.
As z A Kinney said, we'renow in San Antonio, so we're picking
up things in San Antonio, andthen people when they have surplus. Every
two or three times a week,someone comes by and drops off a surplus.
(19:11):
I'll never forget about four years agobefore COVID, this couple came by
and they were no older than youare, and they came by and dropped
something off. And a lot oftimes people have rehabbed and don't need it.
There's other kinds of things. Andmy colleague GIDGETT. Swift, said,
thank you so much for thinking ofmedical bridges. I'm sorry for your
loss, and they said, yes, our daughter died two days ago and
(19:37):
Gidget had the presence of mind tosay you can be sure this will go
to help somebody who otherwise wouldn't haveit at all. Right, So whether
it's you know, the way wesend things out, you know, hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of materialand forty foot containers but one pair of
(19:59):
gloves adders. In fact, therewas a case of a hand carry to
Kenya. Yes, recently we hada hand carry that was sent to Kenya
by hand carry, what do youmean hand curry? So now, so
when when someone needs medical supplies andthey can get you know a few things
in a box a two and theyfly over there, yeah, they take
(20:21):
it with them. It's often likea missions someone going on a mission trip
ye or just visiting relatives. Theyknow they can get a box or two
from medical bridges, right exactly.So it's usually mostly a mission trips um.
But in this case, it wasone small box that was sent to
Western Kenya and um, the doctorthat received it is planning on sharing it
(20:45):
with two hospitals in Western Kenya,So one little box for two hospitals.
And there's this picture of him,an eighty six year old physician, holding
this box like it was gold andtwo nurse is standing by him. I
mean it made me remember how muchone box means one pair of gloves.
(21:11):
I saw you prepare all the stuffyou send out. It's it's a lot
of metal, it's heavy stuffs,which means that all of this is going
to be super expensive to send out. I mean, these clinics in a
container. The first time we talkedon this show, you mentioned how difficult
it was to ship things. Itwas right at the peak of the pandemic
shipping problems and all around the world. Remember the boats out in the harbor
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and Los Angeles, all those picturesand people talking about how they're never going
to get their car. My BMW'son that boat, and you're talking about
a box of pliers and gloves andthings that we take for granted. If
I need him, I just goto Walgreens. Ten minute walk and I'm
back and I have everything I need. And your doctor has in his cabinet
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needles and syringes. Yes, inmany developing countries, if you're going to
need an inoculation, you have togo to the pharmacy and bring your own
needle and syringe. So that's oneof the things that you can send out,
but I imagine that the syringes area little harder to get by because
that's something that the hospitals are goingto use if they're gonna use, right,
(22:18):
Like I when what I saw youprepare for the shipping were a lot
of pliers and knives and blades andthe kind of things that they unwrap,
prepare and then they don't use it, so it just gets put in a
box. Yeah. Yeah, Imean we get all kinds of instruments,
and instruments really matter of all kinds. But remember I'm talking about one pair
(22:41):
of gloves. A needle in asyringe is way more valuable suitures. One
of our one of our good friendsat MD Anderson, was organizing for five
doctors to go to Mozambique to dosurgery, and she checked where they were
going in Mozambique right for the surgeryand family, they had no suitures.
(23:02):
So talk about a hand Carrie.She came by and picked up a box
of suitures. Can you imagine fivesurgeons flying around the world to do surgery
and when they arrive, they can'tdo surgery because they don't have suitures.
That's common, that's crazy in someparts of the world. If the suitures
are long enough, they after theytake them out, they reuse them.
(23:23):
Wow, that's that's crazy. I'mreminded of the story you told me of
the ladies who founded medical bridges.They went to South America on a mission
and ended up having to operate,but they didn't have blood gloves, so
they used bread wrappers like the prfacts bread bags. Right, your memory
(23:44):
is absolutely well, it's kind ofstriking. Just it's mind boggling. We're
we Americans are so lucky. Wekeep turning on each other for all of
these ridiculous, selfish reasons. Andactually, Walter, before we started recording,
you reminded me that were the mostgenerous country in the world per capita.
It's like, we donate more,we're more involved than other people in
(24:07):
the world. And a Kenya,maybe you can. I feel like I
understand this because in France, aCatholic country, socialist country, we rely
on two things. Number one thegovernment and number two the Catholic Church.
Would I would reverse those orders.One of them is a little more reliable
in the others, but honestly,it's not good to have to rely on
just both of them. In America, one of the great progresses is that
(24:30):
we rely on our neighbors. It'sa political it's non religious, is it.
Did you did you sort of havethe same experience after moving here,
where you find that your country isactually way more close minded than America.
That was my experience with the French. It's like, man, we think
we're so open minded, but thetruth is we're still very French. And
(24:55):
in America it's difficult to be anythingbut multicultural unless you're completely close minded.
But I wouldn't know about that becauseI don't talk to those people. Well,
so I grew up in Narrobi,Kenya, which is very diverse,
Yeah, big city, So weum Kenyans are very very open um and
(25:18):
I think so, I think Ihad a slightly different experience because I grew
up, was born and raised innin Narrobi. Yeah, so you feel
like the sense of generosity is thesame over there. I do. I
do. We We call it theHarambe spirit, Harambe meaning coming together.
So whenever something happens um, youknow, really any Kenyon walls are you,
(25:40):
they'll you know, come together andyou know, put their funds together
to help one another. They toorely on the community and less on a
religious organization or less of the governmenthad to say, it might be fifty
to fifty because we're very religious aswell. Yeah, you know, I
was raised Catholic um, but it'syou know, most the Catholics Protestants,
(26:02):
but we are very religious as well. I just I'm really interested in this
idea of America being the place whereall the clans come together and is the
reason why things are way more openminded and welcoming than they are on the
rest of the world. Not tosay that the rest of the world isn't
good, because obviously I'm arguing thatit's the rest of the world that comes
(26:25):
here and makes it great. Solaying back and trusting that the French government
or some Catholic charity is going totake care of something in the poorest corner
of France, and moving to Americaand seeing that it's more about wait a
minute, this is going on,Well we need to do something. Hey,
Bob, get over here. ThatAmerican spirit that is real. We
see that every day. You know, you mentioned the hospitals, the doctor,
(26:45):
yeah, dentist, and the individualsthat drop off equipment, the volunteers
that come every day and sort amedical Bridges. These are volunteers that could
do many other things with their time. They could go to the beach.
Galveston isn't that far away especially,and it's not hud July and August,
right, but they literally come andthey reach across the seas, handing what
they're sorting to a healthcare work orsomewhere else who's then using it to make
(27:08):
to improve somebody's health who otherwise wouldn'tget care and maybe save somebody's life.
Right. And then we have thefinancial donors, both corporations and individual donors
and they're all giving. And thenwe have you know, the board,
the advisory counsel, those people thatnot only provide there there are financial resources,
(27:29):
but they provide their advice in theircounsel to us. And it's because
they all care. Obviously, ifyou'd like to know how to get involved
with Medical Bridges, you just goto their website Medical Bridges dot org,
Medical bridges dot org Walter. Obviously, if you're a DOT, if you're
a physician, a doctor, you'rea nurse, practitioner or just a nurse,
(27:51):
anybody with experience, you can volunteerin that fashion. But it's not
the only way some Shlubla meet cancome in and help too, right,
And also you just need donors.You need awareness, and you probably can't
get enough clinics to buy into givingyou all their stuff. You know,
(28:11):
medical bridges is a fabric that provideshealthcare to people who otherwise wouldn't have it,
and so everything you mentioned is important. But please don't think that a
volunteer has to be medically trained atall. That's simply not true. We
have one coach, I think fromSaint Thomas High School who brings three kids
over once a month and they helpsort things and we love it. We
(28:33):
were named the charity Foundation of theYear for the Houston Astros because cool we
today we had a number of AstrosFoundation volunteers with us, all with their
orange shirts on and everything, andthey're excellent at it. So you know,
you know you mentioned our website,Go to our website and volunteer.
If you have equipment and supplies thatis surplus that is still in good condition,
(28:59):
and we do not. We haveenough respect for the countries we serve
that we don't send expired materials.We only send stuff that still has a
life left. But if you havesomething like that, we'll take it,
and financial support for all nonprofits,especially after what's happened with COVID, is
gratefully valued. Yeah, I wentdown, Yes, go ahead, a
(29:25):
Kenny, I'm sorry. I wasjust going to add to invite your listeners
to follow us on social media.We're on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,
Twitter, and TikTok. That's goingto be an Instagram feed that will not
fill your dead day with hatred anddread. The contrary will put a smile.
Honestly, I stopped all social mediaexcept for Instagram, heavily filtered so
(29:47):
that I know there's nothing but picturesfrom people I love and respect, And
therefore, when I look at thatfeed, I'm either smiling or I'm inspired
to both. But yeah, guys, if y'all are going on on the
Twitter and you come out o mad, it's all on you. It's all
on you, folks. As Isaid, if you need any information from
Medical Bridges, you can start bygoing online. Their website is medical Bridges
(30:11):
dot org medical bridges dot org.Also, maybe the simplest way is just
to send me an email, becausethen you can ask me for anything you
want, even past shows or anything. I'm happy to send you links or
to put you in contact with somebodyor in any of these organizations. Texan
from France at gmail dot com.That's my email address, Texan from France
(30:33):
at gmail dot com. I wantthank you for listening and caring about the
issues that put on this show,folks. I'll be here next week at
the same time. My name isLaurent I'm the Texan from France and this
has been Houston, PA, Houston'spublic affairs show, Houston Strong
Welcome to Houston, PA, Houston'spublic affairs show, an iHeart Media broadcast.
Our disclaimers says that the opinions expressedon this show do not necessarily reflect
those held by this radio station,its management staff, for any of its
advertisers. My name is laurent Iam the Texan from France, and my
(00:27):
guests today are from an organization calledMedical Bridges. They're literally in the business
of taking portable hospitals, little portableclinics, let's call them clinics, as
a hospital is always big. Theseare portable clinics that are built inside of
truck trailers, and that trailer isloaded onto a big boat and sent all
(00:48):
across the world to communities that arepoor, underserved, and generally forgotten by
humanity. And this little clinic ina box can then just be trucked over
into a small community, opened upwith a doctor or a team of nurses,
and suddenly you can have people getglasses, get a vaccine for their
kids, get something fixed up.That would have been something that would have
(01:14):
cost them a lot of time andmoney. They might have had to travel
hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of milesto the nearest town. You can imagine
some small town in South America,for instance. They might be several mountain
valleys away from the nearest clinic,and you could imagine the luxury of having
one of these little clinics just showup bust in, so to speak.
(01:37):
These clinics are designed by Texas Aand M students. We're going to talk
about all this. It's an amazingprogram and you can see online what it
all looks like at medical Bridges dotorg. Medical bridges dot org. My
guest are Aikeni Adoyo and Walter Ulric. Walter is the CEO of Medical Bridges
(01:57):
and Aikeni is their marketing anger.Akene is from Kenya and we were just
talking about how she's going back toKenya for Christmas when it will be summer.
But it doesn't get too warm,No, it doesn't get too warm,
especially if you're in Narabi. Yeah, it gets warmer when you could
get closer to the ocean in Mombasa. And you just told me something that
(02:20):
fascinates me. There's a national parkin Nairobi, so this is kind of
like Houston. We have a memorialpark near downtown. I was telling Akena
that memorial Park. People don't knowthis, but Memorial Park is something like
four or five times the size ofNew York's famous Central Park, especially if
you consider the Arboretum, which absolutelyis a part of Memorial Park, is
(02:40):
just sectioned off and you can't rideyour bike down there because bikers are crazy.
I know because I'm one of them. Had a guy I was I
was crossing paths with this guy onthe street and he says, where a
helmet? And I said, wherea muzzle? Walter. You do have
(03:01):
an extraordinary organization, and what I'vedescribed is science fiction in a way,
but it exists. You have TexasA and M students that are building clinics
instead of containers that we see onships and the back of trucks all the
time. Could you explain to usa little bit how that works. And
while you listen to people, ifyou go to Medical Bridges dot org you
(03:23):
can contribute. There are ways tojust buy a bush loads of useful stuff
to send out all over the world. It doesn't have to be a clinic.
We'll talk about that, but theseclinics are sort of your your calling
card. It's a brilliant idea,it's genius, really Laurent's it's great for
Kenny United to be back with you. Yeah, thanks so much for having
(03:45):
us. You have a way ofdrawing out the most important information. You
know, if all of the youwho look at our website, you're going
to see pages and pages out ofstuff. And Laurent nailed it right away.
Go look at what we're doing withour Texas Aggie students. They are
absolutely amazing. What essentially they do. They raise a little bit of money
(04:05):
and they buy a used forty footmaritime sea container and in the spring,
thirteen hundred Texas A and M studentswill work throughout the spring semester to make
five or six of these clinics ina box with plumbing and with all kinds,
with an air conditioner, with agenerator, with lighting, ceiling fans,
(04:28):
and even a curtain for patient privacy, something you rarely see in the
developing world. And then they sendthem to us and we provide the exam
tables and if there's a specially ifit's designed for specialty, all the equipment
and supplies they need, and thenit's shipped from Medical Bridges facility to the
Port of Houston where it's sent aroundthe world. They you know, when
(04:51):
we never thought Laurent that we wouldever support the Bahamas because it's really not
a developing country until a couple ofyears go when Dorian get through and flattened
parts of the Bahamas, and sowe immediately repurposed two of those clinics to
go somewhere where they didn't even havea building to treat the patients, the
(05:12):
people who are injured by Hurricane Dorian. And the minute they got there,
they opened the doors, the doctorswere there and they immediately started treating patients.
That's what those clinics do around theworld. So we when you imagine
these containers, they're bare. It'sjust you know, it's a piece of
the rectangular metal basically, so youdo have to install plumbing. It's kind
(05:35):
of fascinating. So you basically redecorateor you make the inside like a miniature
doctor's office. Absolutely it is.It looks if you walk in there,
it's a smaller version, yeah,of your doctor's office here in Houston,
Texas. It's got everything. It'sgot flooring, it's got ceiling panels,
(05:58):
it's got lights. The air canconditioning is crucial. Obviously, air conditioning
and a fridge for all the medicalstuff that you might keep a refrigerator.
Is that part of the deal.It depends on what that clinic is going
to be used for. We've hadone that was a dental clinic. We've
had one that was an eye clinic. Most of them are general purpose clinics.
Some of them are designed for maternity. I wow, They're a little
(06:25):
bit like private planes. When youbuy a private plane. My understanding as
you buy a shell and if youif you want to install a shower or
a pool like some Saudi king youcan they do that. Yeah, it's
dumb, and they do that.If you think pool in plane is dumb,
it is it is. So thisis sort of the same, but
way more useful to weigh more people. But it's extraordinary how you can sort
(06:47):
of outfit these So I guess withspring that will come up well, and
it'll be in a while. Butyou're going to have these students at A
and M university outfit several of theseclinics and they're going to be a little
bit different from each other. You'llhave purposed some of them for certain areas,
like for dentistry and motherhood. Yeah, the purposing comes when it gets
(07:09):
to medical bridges, so there's astandard design, yeah, yeah, And
then it depends do you put ina dental chair or an exam table?
Yeah? Do you put in theeye doctor stuff right? Or do you
put in something else? And oneexample, you know, they're they're literally
all over the world right now.In one case, they're in front of
(07:30):
a bomb hospital in a country that'sat war, treating patients that have been
injured. In another case, andthis is South Sudan. South Sudan is
one of the poorest countries in theworld. You know, in the US,
out of every hundred thousand births,you have about twelve infant mortality out
of every hundred thousand births, soit's rare in most countries. It's the
(07:54):
count is out of every hundred thousand. In South Sudan, the count is
out of every hundred births, sixbabies out of every hundred live births will
die and one or two moms.So we sent so two out of one
hundred moms will also die. Oneor two moms will also giving births,
so you have seven to eight deathsout of every one hundred live births.
(08:18):
And so with the help of thekids from Texas, A and M.
And they're not kids. They're reallyyoung adults, way smarter than I was
when I was their age. Theyshould be. They're younger than us.
If they're not smarter, if theyoung aren't smarter, they failed. But
we had to send two because ofthe religious beliefs there. If we only
(08:39):
sent one, it would be amen's clinic because the men and women can't
in that part of so house toDan go to the same facility for medical
care. So we've sent two.On the women's one, you can see
hundreds and hundreds of women lined upwith Burker's celebrating. On the men's side,
you see men in jeeps and pickup trucks shooting off a K forty
(09:01):
sevens in the air. It isthink of this, two clinics in a
box with surplus meadow equipment supplies isbigger than a Bistelle Day or July fourth
celebration in South Sudan. So whenthe clinics arrive, the men celebrate,
and yeah, they like to firetheir their colashnik coughs in the air.
Yes, you know, of coursethey're going to celebrate. It's yeah,
(09:22):
but you don't have to shoot weaponsin the air, those bullets come back
down. They have. They hadthat problem in South American Central America too,
Bang bang, Thank goodness, there'sa clinic to treat them when the
bullets come bad. Is the clinicbullet proof? Is what we want to
know. The women are being setaside, basically their second class citizens in
(09:46):
those in those countries. Still,I'm saying that, that's my opinion,
and I am saying it because Iwant to point out the generosity of our
country, which is often being criticizedfor being misogynists and a racists and all
the things which we are a lotless than the rest of the world.
And we have an organization here provingthat once they've identified the need, they'll
(10:07):
go out their way and spend literallythousands upon thousands of dollars and man hours
and just to make sure that thewomen and the men both get what they
need. We're not we're not cuttinganybody out. We're just going to try
to help as many people as possible. It's a really interesting subject. You
are listening to Houston, PA,Houston's Public Affairs Show. My name is
(10:30):
Laurent and my guest are Akeni Adoyo. She is the marketing manager for Medical
Bridges and Walter Ulrich is their CEO. And by the way, Walter is
a US Marine Corps retired. Theman has been serving our community for a
long time. I want to talka little bit about these humanitarian vouchers you
(10:50):
mentioned before we started recording, becauseone of the places you're going into is
Ukraine. This is a political They'reonly sending these clinics and medical supplies.
It's only about helping civilians, okay. And my question, because I'm one
of those guys, it's okay,well for doing this a politically. You're
sending help to Ukraine to help thekids of Ukraine who shall not be blamed
(11:13):
for what's going on. What aboutthe Russian kids who are just as blameless
to me? And you explain tome that you can't actually get a voucher
to go in there right now?Is that right? Well? Or they
haven't asked you. We haven't beenasked. So Medical Bridges is a political.
Yes, Walter, the former Marinemight have a political view, but
it's none of our business. Youhave one that Kenny may have one,
(11:35):
right, But when it comes toMedical Bridges, we will serve anybody who
has any needs. A great exampleof this is when COVID first hit Yuhan
before it hit the US, theymake the masks and they were running low,
and we sent five thousand masks,which is a drop in the bucket
(11:58):
to Wuhan, but it's a gesturehelped them with COVID, and six months
later after it hit US, theysent us twenty thousand mass back. It
is people to people. We believewe are all one people, one world,
and if we considered that more seriously, we'd get along much more seriously
too. And so we'll serve anybodyin need. And as a humanitarian nonprofit,
(12:24):
we have waivers for a lot ofcountries that we see as adversaries when
it comes to competition in the world. But you know, if they have
a need and we can get aclear path into the country that will serve
the people in need, not haveit redirected someplace else, then we'll serve
(12:46):
those people. That, by theway, is one of the great things
about medical bridges. You're not givingmoney to be sent to some kind of
Banana Republic dictator, to use acliche. You're sending materials and just as
you said, Walter, you vetthese destinations you make sure that the clinic,
for example, is going to beput on a truck and sent to
(13:07):
the right place, and that there'sgoing to be nurse practitioners or doctors ready
to serve in that clinic precisely.But in my understanding is basically Russia has
an asked you to come, andthat's understandable because well of the situation we're
essentially at war with them. Butthere's other countries that won't actually give you
a humanitarian waiver at all. NorthKorea is unsurprisingly one of them. Yeah,
(13:28):
the US government does, okay,does have I think three countries,
and I recall that North Korea isone of them. I think Iran is
one of them. And I believethe third country maybe a part of Syria,
but not all of Syria, butI'd have to look it up.
But other than that will serve anycountry. There's Ethiopia, there's Djibouti.
(13:52):
Jibouti is a country that has lesspopulation than Houston has. Really wow,
And that is the ninety first countrythat we served last year. The countries
we serve around the world, soyou're serving the only one. Now that's
that's your gount that's the latest countand you're not just sending a ken you
you're not just sending clinics. You'resending all these these supplies. When you
(14:13):
guys they welcomed me on the tourlast year, it was really awesome.
I got to see their warehouse andyou've got this really impressive array of stuff
that is donating. Well, bythe way, can you We have to
we have to explain to our audiencehow you guys work, because all this
stuff you're sending to this country isactually donated to you. It's a hospital
surplus run that by us. Becauseit boggles my mind, right, it's
(14:35):
mind boggling. So a lot ofour supplies comes mostly from Texas Medical Center,
so um, and we'll also getsome clinics that are you know,
helping us. And now we havejust opened a location in San Antonio and
we are getting new partners that aredonating medical supplies as well, so we
(14:56):
are super grateful to them for that. So you have a Medical Bridges location
in San Antonio. Now, Yes, Walter with their own CEO, with
a managing director or women named SarahChianti, who's who has just a star
in Santano. She's been creating partnershipsand relationships. Yes, exactly, exactly.
So they get the supplies and thenour tracks, our box truck will
(15:20):
go to San Antonio and applies intoour facility and we will stop them,
we'll pack them, and then we'llship them to whatever it's needed. Yeah.
So your San Antonio office does thesame thing with their medical centers.
They collect a bunch of donations aswell. Yes, so we have a
we have some clinics that have donated. Yes, so these supplies. It's
(15:41):
mind boggling the amount of waste thatcomes out of the hospital system. And
we're not going to be mad aboutit for two reasons. Number one,
it makes sense and number two,a lot of times they're doing good things
with it. But Raquini, wehave to explain that in order for me
to go in for a hernia operation, for instance, the surge is going
to order all these tools that hemight need on my body, including the
(16:03):
emergency stuff which he won't use orshe won't use. So they put it
all out. But once it's beenunwrapped and prepared, it can't be put
back into the system because it's waytoo expensive to clean it and rewrap it
and the hospitals would need an entirenew building to do this exactly. Well,
I have to say, Walter explainedall this to me in the previous
interviews. I'm just repeating the information. You're doing a good job thing,
(16:26):
but it's mind boggling. It's theamounts, the amounts of when we're talking
about really expensive stuff sometimes right likegive us some example dialysis machines, there's
also the stuff that gets old orthey replace it with something that's newer and
better. All right, and nowyou have a dialysis machine that's just a
(16:48):
year and a half old but doesn'thave the new due Hickey on it,
and it works perfectly, and you'resending it to Kenya front or we have
a tech on site that will looklook into the medical equipment and will make
sure that each one is working,put a label on it before we send
it out. I remember this fellow, even though I've forgotten his name,
Brian, Brian Williams, the realone who doesn't lie. And the reason
(17:15):
he doesn't lies because unlike the oneon TV, this Brian Williams reads the
instruction. But what I thought wasextraordinary about meaning this man is that he
is self taught. He knows howto work all these machines. I can't
work him, but I could learnthem just like he did. And he
just he learned by reading all theseinstruction manuals. And I'm like renaissance man
in the flesh. That's all thoseautodiet acts. All those people that have
(17:38):
taught themselves have done it this way. Is brilliant. He's amazing. He
does all the research. That's justso he actually gets the machine and figures
out if it works or not byreading the instructions, and then he fixes
it. And then he fixes it'sblind boggling. It's just what an amazing
team of people. So but backto this, to the quote unquote waste
(18:00):
from the hospitals, this is asystem that just produces all of these surplus.
It's not wasted're getting get back andit's absolutely necessary. And for years,
for decades, would it would justgo to the landfill for dacades it,
We'll go to the landfills. Soif we don't rescue it, then
it ends up in the landfills.I just so you have a network now,
(18:23):
I guess Walter, you work withyour partners in town, the Texas
Medical Center and all that. Yeah, many of the institutions of the Texas
Medical Center are very generous donors.We do a lot of work in children's
hospitals around the world, and soTexas Children's as a partner. This year
for our Galea, we're honoring DavidCalendar of Memorial Herman. Memorial Herman has
(18:48):
been a huge partner for us overthe years. But it is most of
the institutions of the Medical Center doctorsand dentists when they're retiring or upgrading.
As z A Kinney said, we'renow in San Antonio, so we're picking
up things in San Antonio, andthen people when they have surplus. Every
two or three times a week,someone comes by and drops off a surplus.
(19:11):
I'll never forget about four years agobefore COVID, this couple came by
and they were no older than youare, and they came by and dropped
something off. And a lot oftimes people have rehabbed and don't need it.
There's other kinds of things. Andmy colleague GIDGETT. Swift, said,
thank you so much for thinking ofmedical bridges. I'm sorry for your
loss, and they said, yes, our daughter died two days ago and
(19:37):
Gidget had the presence of mind tosay you can be sure this will go
to help somebody who otherwise wouldn't haveit at all. Right, So whether
it's you know, the way wesend things out, you know, hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of materialand forty foot containers but one pair of
(19:59):
gloves adders. In fact, therewas a case of a hand carry to
Kenya. Yes, recently we hada hand carry that was sent to Kenya
by hand carry, what do youmean hand curry? So now, so
when when someone needs medical supplies andthey can get you know a few things
in a box a two and theyfly over there, yeah, they take
(20:21):
it with them. It's often likea missions someone going on a mission trip
ye or just visiting relatives. Theyknow they can get a box or two
from medical bridges, right exactly.So it's usually mostly a mission trips um.
But in this case, it wasone small box that was sent to
Western Kenya and um, the doctorthat received it is planning on sharing it
(20:45):
with two hospitals in Western Kenya,So one little box for two hospitals.
And there's this picture of him,an eighty six year old physician, holding
this box like it was gold andtwo nurse is standing by him. I
mean it made me remember how muchone box means one pair of gloves.
(21:11):
I saw you prepare all the stuffyou send out. It's it's a lot
of metal, it's heavy stuffs,which means that all of this is going
to be super expensive to send out. I mean, these clinics in a
container. The first time we talkedon this show, you mentioned how difficult
it was to ship things. Itwas right at the peak of the pandemic
shipping problems and all around the world. Remember the boats out in the harbor
(21:36):
and Los Angeles, all those picturesand people talking about how they're never going
to get their car. My BMW'son that boat, and you're talking about
a box of pliers and gloves andthings that we take for granted. If
I need him, I just goto Walgreens. Ten minute walk and I'm
back and I have everything I need. And your doctor has in his cabinet
(21:57):
needles and syringes. Yes, inmany developing countries, if you're going to
need an inoculation, you have togo to the pharmacy and bring your own
needle and syringe. So that's oneof the things that you can send out,
but I imagine that the syringes area little harder to get by because
that's something that the hospitals are goingto use if they're gonna use, right,
(22:18):
Like I when what I saw youprepare for the shipping were a lot
of pliers and knives and blades andthe kind of things that they unwrap,
prepare and then they don't use it, so it just gets put in a
box. Yeah. Yeah, Imean we get all kinds of instruments,
and instruments really matter of all kinds. But remember I'm talking about one pair
(22:41):
of gloves. A needle in asyringe is way more valuable suitures. One
of our one of our good friendsat MD Anderson, was organizing for five
doctors to go to Mozambique to dosurgery, and she checked where they were
going in Mozambique right for the surgeryand family, they had no suitures.
(23:02):
So talk about a hand Carrie.She came by and picked up a box
of suitures. Can you imagine fivesurgeons flying around the world to do surgery
and when they arrive, they can'tdo surgery because they don't have suitures.
That's common, that's crazy in someparts of the world. If the suitures
are long enough, they after theytake them out, they reuse them.
(23:23):
Wow, that's that's crazy. I'mreminded of the story you told me of
the ladies who founded medical bridges.They went to South America on a mission
and ended up having to operate,but they didn't have blood gloves, so
they used bread wrappers like the prfacts bread bags. Right, your memory
(23:44):
is absolutely well, it's kind ofstriking. Just it's mind boggling. We're
we Americans are so lucky. Wekeep turning on each other for all of
these ridiculous, selfish reasons. Andactually, Walter, before we started recording,
you reminded me that were the mostgenerous country in the world per capita.
It's like, we donate more,we're more involved than other people in
(24:07):
the world. And a Kenya,maybe you can. I feel like I
understand this because in France, aCatholic country, socialist country, we rely
on two things. Number one thegovernment and number two the Catholic Church.
Would I would reverse those orders.One of them is a little more reliable
in the others, but honestly,it's not good to have to rely on
just both of them. In America, one of the great progresses is that
(24:30):
we rely on our neighbors. It'sa political it's non religious, is it.
Did you did you sort of havethe same experience after moving here,
where you find that your country isactually way more close minded than America.
That was my experience with the French. It's like, man, we think
we're so open minded, but thetruth is we're still very French. And
(24:55):
in America it's difficult to be anythingbut multicultural unless you're completely close minded.
But I wouldn't know about that becauseI don't talk to those people. Well,
so I grew up in Narrobi,Kenya, which is very diverse,
Yeah, big city, So weum Kenyans are very very open um and
(25:18):
I think so, I think Ihad a slightly different experience because I grew
up, was born and raised innin Narrobi. Yeah, so you feel
like the sense of generosity is thesame over there. I do. I
do. We We call it theHarambe spirit, Harambe meaning coming together.
So whenever something happens um, youknow, really any Kenyon walls are you,
(25:40):
they'll you know, come together andyou know, put their funds together
to help one another. They toorely on the community and less on a
religious organization or less of the governmenthad to say, it might be fifty
to fifty because we're very religious aswell. Yeah, you know, I
was raised Catholic um, but it'syou know, most the Catholics Protestants,
(26:02):
but we are very religious as well. I just I'm really interested in this
idea of America being the place whereall the clans come together and is the
reason why things are way more openminded and welcoming than they are on the
rest of the world. Not tosay that the rest of the world isn't
good, because obviously I'm arguing thatit's the rest of the world that comes
(26:25):
here and makes it great. Solaying back and trusting that the French government
or some Catholic charity is going totake care of something in the poorest corner
of France, and moving to Americaand seeing that it's more about wait a
minute, this is going on,Well we need to do something. Hey,
Bob, get over here. ThatAmerican spirit that is real. We
see that every day. You know, you mentioned the hospitals, the doctor,
(26:45):
yeah, dentist, and the individualsthat drop off equipment, the volunteers
that come every day and sort amedical Bridges. These are volunteers that could
do many other things with their time. They could go to the beach.
Galveston isn't that far away especially,and it's not hud July and August,
right, but they literally come andthey reach across the seas, handing what
they're sorting to a healthcare work orsomewhere else who's then using it to make
(27:08):
to improve somebody's health who otherwise wouldn'tget care and maybe save somebody's life.
Right. And then we have thefinancial donors, both corporations and individual donors
and they're all giving. And thenwe have you know, the board,
the advisory counsel, those people thatnot only provide there there are financial resources,
(27:29):
but they provide their advice in theircounsel to us. And it's because
they all care. Obviously, ifyou'd like to know how to get involved
with Medical Bridges, you just goto their website Medical Bridges dot org,
Medical bridges dot org Walter. Obviously, if you're a DOT, if you're
a physician, a doctor, you'rea nurse, practitioner or just a nurse,
(27:51):
anybody with experience, you can volunteerin that fashion. But it's not
the only way some Shlubla meet cancome in and help too, right,
And also you just need donors.You need awareness, and you probably can't
get enough clinics to buy into givingyou all their stuff. You know,
(28:11):
medical bridges is a fabric that provideshealthcare to people who otherwise wouldn't have it,
and so everything you mentioned is important. But please don't think that a
volunteer has to be medically trained atall. That's simply not true. We
have one coach, I think fromSaint Thomas High School who brings three kids
over once a month and they helpsort things and we love it. We
(28:33):
were named the charity Foundation of theYear for the Houston Astros because cool we
today we had a number of AstrosFoundation volunteers with us, all with their
orange shirts on and everything, andthey're excellent at it. So you know,
you know you mentioned our website,Go to our website and volunteer.
If you have equipment and supplies thatis surplus that is still in good condition,
(28:59):
and we do not. We haveenough respect for the countries we serve
that we don't send expired materials.We only send stuff that still has a
life left. But if you havesomething like that, we'll take it,
and financial support for all nonprofits,especially after what's happened with COVID, is
gratefully valued. Yeah, I wentdown, Yes, go ahead, a
(29:25):
Kenny, I'm sorry. I wasjust going to add to invite your listeners
to follow us on social media.We're on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,
Twitter, and TikTok. That's goingto be an Instagram feed that will not
fill your dead day with hatred anddread. The contrary will put a smile.
Honestly, I stopped all social mediaexcept for Instagram, heavily filtered so
(29:47):
that I know there's nothing but picturesfrom people I love and respect, And
therefore, when I look at thatfeed, I'm either smiling or I'm inspired
to both. But yeah, guys, if y'all are going on on the
Twitter and you come out o mad, it's all on you. It's all
on you, folks. As Isaid, if you need any information from
Medical Bridges, you can start bygoing online. Their website is medical Bridges
(30:11):
dot org medical bridges dot org.Also, maybe the simplest way is just
to send me an email, becausethen you can ask me for anything you
want, even past shows or anything. I'm happy to send you links or
to put you in contact with somebodyor in any of these organizations. Texan
from France at gmail dot com.That's my email address, Texan from France
(30:33):
at gmail dot com. I wantthank you for listening and caring about the
issues that put on this show,folks. I'll be here next week at
the same time. My name isLaurent I'm the Texan from France and this
has been Houston, PA, Houston'spublic affairs show, Houston Strong
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!