The Moose Jaw International Medical Mission (MJIMM) recently received a generous donation of prescriptions and equipment from Superstore Pharmacy.

"Superstore Pharmacy has been extremely generous. They've always supported our mission and our team for several years now," said Dr. Mark Brown. "It was just great to see them be able to provide us with many of the meds that we're going to need to do the work that we do. We really appreciate them very much."

Brown says they received anti-inflammatories and medications to treat diabetes and high blood pressure.

"We see a lot of people who have chronic pain, because they work hard, they have labour-type jobs. Many of the medications as well will be used to treat various stomach ailments, which we see quite a lot of. It's a variety of medications that we're taking along, to be able to do medical clinics basically very similar to what you would experience locally when you see your family doctor. The only difference being is that we see people, we'll diagnose them, we'll treat them and we'll actually provide them with their prescription."

Donated equipment included sterile gloves, needles, facemasks, alcohol swabs, and special containers for storing needles.

Brown explained that they try and get all of their medications donated before leaving for Central America.

"Sometimes the medications that get used down in Guatemala aren't available in Canada and so in that case what we would do is we would source them out in Guatemala, whatever we weren't able to get, and we would purchase it there. Most of the medications that we use down there are locally donated. We are very thankful for that."

A team of about 40 will be leaving for Guatemala on February 2 to perform surgeries and install properly venting stoves and water filtration systems.