Project Embrace Embarks on Their Largest Donation Campaign to Date

SALT LAKE CITY — On October 10th, members of Project Embrace, a local nonprofit startup founded by University of Utah students, filled up a box-truck with 108 once-used medical devices. Shortly thereafter, they embarked on a road trip to Tijuana, Mexico, marking the completion of their largest campaign yet. 

The journey, starting in Salt Lake City, Utah, led the team down through San Diego, CA, over the Mexican border to Tijuana, and on to Rosarito. The four day campaign consisted of traveling through four states, donating in three cities across two countries, spanning 1,566 miles.

The goal of this campaign was to donate medical devices to refugees and undocumented folks across the border.  

While facing complications at the border, Project Embrace was able to donate a cane to a man named Juan - who had slipped a spinal disk 3-4 years ago, and had since gone untreated - in the parking lot of the Otay Mesa Border Crossing. As he received the cane, he instantly let out a sigh of relief, and carried on with his day with alleviated pain.

His nephew, Eddie, had pulled Mohan Sudabattula, Founder and Executive Director, aside and asked how much this was going to cost. Sudabattula replied saying all the devices in the back of the truck were free of charge.

“It's always rewarding to see the direct impact we have on patients. More often than not, the patients we help do not know English but their reactions to our devices are always the same. They are always very grateful and it makes me emotional every time to see that we made a difference in their lives,” said Sudabattula.

Project Embrace was able to donate devices directly to patients, some of which had traveled over five hours and 200 miles, just to receive their device. 

While the travels were long and the team ran into logistical issues at the border, the countless smiles were worth every mile traveled. 

#GiveGlobalGood

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They are always very grateful and it makes me emotional every time to see that we made a difference in their lives.

Mohan Sudabattula, Founder and Executive Director

About Project Embrace

Project Embrace is a student-run, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing medical devices to resource-limited areas and target patients throughout the United States and abroad. They accomplish this by collecting gently-used medical devices from community members, and sanitizing and refurbishing said devices through volunteer-based community events. They then redistribute them to target populations such as refugees, the undocumented, the homeless, indigenous peoples, and the generally underserved and disenfranchised.

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