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BUREAU FOR DEVELOPMENT, DEMOCRACY, AND INNOVATION
LOCAL, FAITH, AND TRANSFORMATIVE PARTNERSHIPS HUB
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Limited Excess Property Program |
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May 2023
The Limited Excess Property Program (LEPP) provides Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) access to federal surplus property to support their humanitarian and development projects abroad. LEPP utilizes an innovative model of recovery and reuse to support a variety of development projects that promote sustainability in developing countries. LEPP is managed by USAID's American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) Initiative, which is part of the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation's Local, Faith, and Transformative Partnerships (LFT) Hub.
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SECOND QUARTER LEPP PROPERTY TRANSFER HIGHLIGHTS |
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A variety of items valued at $2,897,802 were requisitioned and processed through LEPP in the second quarter of fiscal year 2023. Most of the property was earmarked for regional hospitals and health care centers that serve remote populations in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
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World Help, in partnership with LEPP, accessed 22,720 athlete’s T-shirts worth $111,100 that will ship to Honduras. The clothing will go to the Sovereign Order of Malta, a lay religious order of the Catholic Church since 1113, and will be donated to Catholic boarding schools for children whose families are unable to care for them. Today, the Order of Malta is active in 120 countries caring for people in need through its medical, social, and humanitarian works. It is especially involved in helping people during armed conflicts and natural disasters by providing medical assistance, caring for refugees, and distributing medicines and basic equipment for survival.
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CURE International, in partnership with LEPP, accessed five intravenous syringe pumps worth $20,299 that will ship to Kenya. The equipment will support patient care at the AIC-CURE International Hospital (CURE Kenya) located in Kijabe. CURE Kenya opened in 1998 and was Africa’s first orthopedic pediatric teaching hospital for children with treatable disabilities. The intravenous syringe pumps dispense antibiotics, pain relief, and nutrients in a controlled and precise manner. Easy to program and operate, syringe pumps are an essential part of safe, quality health care for children to ensure accurate and continual dosing. CURE Kenya performs over two thousand life-changing orthopedic and reconstructive surgeries and procedures yearly treating conditions such as club feet, bowed legs, knocking knees, cleft lip/palate, and burn contractures.
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United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC), in partnership with LEPP, accessed and shipped $87,079 worth of hospital beds, stretchers, and air mattress pumps to Ukraine. The equipment is targeted to address humanitarian needs resulting from Russia’s war against Ukraine. As the number of injured civilians, including children, increases, there are not enough beds for those in need of treatment. The LEPP donation of hospital beds, stretchers, and therapeutic air mattress pumps which are used for the care, prevention, and treatment of all stages of pressure ulcers (bed sores) will help UUARC to aid more injured or sick civilians.
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CharityVision International, in partnership with LEPP, accessed $212,446 worth of surgical unit equipment that will ship to Pakistan. At the request of the Ministry of Health, CharityVision is renovating the infrastructure of its partner hospital Mehboob CharityVision to expand its health care services beyond eye care. Expanded Outpatient Department services will include labor and delivery, accident and emergency, X-ray and imaging, gastroenterology, general surgery, and other ancillary services. Mehboob CharityVision, located in the Mansehra District, serves approximately 1.5 million patients with a steady growth rate of 3 percent per year. The surgical and other LEPP-donated equipment will help the hospital serve the needs of this growing population.
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PVO SPOTLIGHT ON ST. LUKE’S HEALTH CARE FOUNDATION |
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 PHOTO CREDIT: ST. LUKE’S HEALTH CARE FOUNDATION.
KEN AMSTUTZ, PRESIDENT, ST. LUKE’S HEALTH CARE FOUNDATION.
Q: We appreciate your partnership. Can you tell us a little about your program and your role?
A: St Luke’s Health Care Foundation owns and operates Soddo Christian Hospital (SCH) a surgical training hospital in rural Ethiopia. Since opening in 2005, SCH has treated over 345,000 patients, performed over 72,000 surgical procedures, and delivered over 10,000 babies. I am the President of St Luke’s and function as the U.S. Administrator. With the approval of SCH staff, I also select, store, and ship LEPP-donated equipment to Ethiopia and complete the required paperwork, tracking, and reporting documents.
Q: What types of humanitarian aid or development programs are utilizing the federal surplus property transferred by your organization?
A: St. Luke’s Health Care Foundation is transferring federal surplus property to SCH, a tertiary-care teaching hospital in southern Ethiopia. SCH operates two surgical residency programs—Orthopedic Surgery and General Surgery—with an emphasis on trauma. In addition, it offers obstetric services provided by board-certified OBG’s, operates a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), and conducts multiple community outreach programs to identify and treat problems such as rheumatic heart disease and uterine prolapse.
Q: I know that our PVO Partners would not be able to successfully implement their programs/projects that use federal surplus property without on-the-ground access and local partnerships. Can you give me an example of a smart, flexible, and creative project where you partnered with your In-Country partners and local actors to achieve successful outcomes?
A: Hospital-acquired infections are the invisible enemy that excellent hospitals are always trying to fight. Physicians at SCH in Ethiopia really wanted to acquire ultraviolet sterilizing equipment to use in their busy operating rooms and NICU, but the cost of the technology was out of reach for the mission hospital. When two new ultraviolet sterilizing units became available through LEPP, I immediately acquired the equipment and put them on the next container headed for Ethiopia. Infection rates in the NICU as well as in the post-operative patient population have dropped considerably since SCH has started using the sterilizing equipment.
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 PHOTO CREDIT: ST. LUKE’S HEALTH CARE.
DR. GEDENO, STAFF RADIOLOGIST, USING A LEPP-DONATED ULTRASOUND AT SCH.
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Q: What community challenges/problems do these programs try to address? Can you share with us any statistical data related to the problems/challenges?
A: Ethiopia is an underdeveloped nation by every measure, including the quality of health care available to its residents. SCH is endeavoring to improve the health of the population it serves in southern Ethiopia by providing excellent medical care and training African health care professionals. One of the ways SCH does this is through its accredited general and orthopedic surgery training programs.
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The hospital has graduated 14 surgeons since it opened in 2005. These surgeons have gone on to train others and perform more than 12,000 surgeries in their careers. |
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 PHOTO CREDIT: ST. LUKE’S HEALTH CARE.TWO SETS OF TWINS BORN WITHIN
MINUTES OF EACH OTHER AT SCH.
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Q: Do any of your programs utilizing federal surplus property work on increasing women’s access to income, productive resources, or technology?
A: Equipment donated through LEPP, such as ultrasounds, are used to diagnose cancers and fibroids in women and are also used in prenatal care. Ultraviolet sterilization technology is used in the hospital’s gynecology surgery suites to prevent infection in women undergoing surgeries and to correct a myriad of problems such as uterine prolapse and ectopic pregnancies.
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Q: What is most gratifying about working with the St. Luke’s Health Care Foundation and partnering with LEPP?
A: Being able to obtain equipment and quality furnishings that would otherwise be cost prohibitive.
Q: Can you give some tips for other PVO partners on how you’ve used federal surplus property and/or property and ASHA grants to successfully support your programs?
A: Excess government equipment is being constantly added to the GSA site, so a PVO Partner’s designated LEPP POC should login at least once a week to check for useful equipment. Using the advanced search feature to search for new or used medical equipment takes a minimal amount of time. I use a pre-approved list of equipment that I know our partner’s local site can use. The LEPP equipment transfer training aids have also been helpful.
Thanks so much for taking the time to help us learn more about your program and your passions, Ken. We look forward to many more years of partnering with the St. Luke’s Health Care Foundation to continue to serve underserved communities.
— The LEPP Team
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- There are many ways to partner with USAID, including through receiving a subaward. The WorkwithUSAID.org platform has made subawards easier to find by creating a new portal for sub-opportunities.
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- Since USAID’s founding more than 60 years ago, USAID has worked together with partner countries to help tackle many of the challenges of our time. Yet despite remarkable progress, today, our development challenges have taken on a global magnitude not seen since perhaps the Second World War, with significant implications for America’s national security. USAID is launching a new Policy Framework: Driving Progress Beyond Programs to address these challenges and reinforce our commitment to building a more peaceful, prosperous, and humane world. Administrator Power shared how the Policy Framework reflects her vision for USAID’s work during the launch event.
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According to USAID, monetary donations to aid groups on the ground are the best way to help Ukraine. Cash donations are flexible and efficient, and don’t compete with priority relief items like material donations. The State Department partnered with GoFundMe to direct funds to organizations that are helping address the humanitarian needs of those impacted by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
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The Limited Excess Property Program is part of the Local, Faith, and Transformative Partnerships (LFT) Hub.
The LFT Hub focuses on strengthening USAID’s ability to partner with non-traditional and diverse actors including local, faith-based, and community organizations; schools and hospitals; foundations; diaspora communities; cooperatives; and volunteer organizations. Learn more about how LFT is harnessing the power of partnerships through the following:
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WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Your stories, photos, videos, and news releases are always welcome. Help us spread the good news about your work and partnership with LEPP. Also, LEPP PVOs and Missions, please notify us of your upcoming LEPP-related public diplomacy events. Please send information to LEPP@USAID.gov.
For further information on the LEPP program, please email: LEPP@USAID.gov.
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