Graeme’S STORY

Being involved with ADFA has been a wonderful journey and I feel very fortunate to be part of a vibrant and forward-thinking organisation.
Graeme Wilson, Volunteer

It all started when ADFA requested shipping and logistical support from the company where I worked. ADFA, and the energetic Robert Forward, would organise volunteers to pack containers of medical equipment, and we would send them to their final destination in Ethiopia, Somaliland or Madagascar.

As I moved towards semi-retirement, volunteering with ADFA felt like a good fit. The ethos displayed by Graham Forward and the medical volunteers was exceptional. Sharing my 47 years of logistics experience was an opportunity for me to give back.

It is very rewarding to receive good quality medical equipment and pack and deliver containers to support medical teams in hospitals in developing countries. This process has raised many interesting challenges, and over time we have streamlined our processes to ensure the efficient and effective use of donated funds by ADFA. Since 2008, when I initially became involved, and later as an ADFA Board member, we have packed and shipped some 59 containers to our partners overseas.

When COVID arrived, we expected that we would need to go into hibernation from a logistics perspective. How wrong we were – instead this past 30 months have been our busiest period ever, moving equipment and necessary supplies, including PPE, in different ways to assist our partners and their communities during that difficult time.

[Nov 2022]