Aid to Africa Binson's donates supplies to Nigerian clinic

CENTER LINE, Mich. - Binson's Home Health Care Centers recently donated more than $45,000 worth of supplies to a Nigerian clinic, where necessities like antibiotic ointment and Tylenol are in short supply. Eucharia Osuoha, a nurse at Mount Clemens Regional Medical Center, will take the supplies to Isu, Nigeria. "She left there to come here for a better life," said Tracey Dettmer, marketing and sales manager for Binson's. Osuoha sent a letter to Binson's asking for the provider's help, after visiting her family in Isu and witnessing the "deplorable and dilapidated" conditions of area hospitals. In her letter, Osuoha wrote: "Many of the poor villagers have met their untimely deaths to preventable diseases. I have lost cherished siblings, many relatives and friends because of the same." Binson's has a history of helping local patients in need. For example, it runs loan closets for both the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. In October, Binson's annual Chili Cookoff raised more than $30,000 for Karmanos. "Whenever there are patients who need extra help or don't have insurance or insurance doesn't cover everything, we find a way to try to work things out," said Dettmer. Binson's staff approached the opportunity to help patients in Africa with the same enthusiasm, she said. "I went straight to Jimmy Binson (CEO) and he said, 'We've got to do something,'" she said. Binson's staff gathered diabetic meters, antibiotic ointment, Tylenol, anti-diarrhea medication and other items that the clinic staff might need. "We were getting ready to do inventory and we had a little bit of overstock, so it just worked out that we could clean house and help somebody by doing it," said Dettmer. Osuoha planned to deliver the items to the clinic in early December.