In the summer of 2012, I served in rural areas of Kenya, working with AMREF Flying Doctors to bring medical interventions to communities in need. To say this was a humbling experience would be an understatement. We flew by helicopter into areas not accessible by vehicle in order to assess community medical infrastructure and to aid in the design and provision of emergency medical management protocols. In many of these communities, pregnant women had to walk up to 10 miles in order to give birth with medical assistance; infection with HIV was rampant, but many had forgone the use of necessary medical treatment because it was either too expensive or not available – some could not make the 2-3 day trek to regularly get to a clinic that offered free or reduced-cost treatment; many were dying from malaria, tuberculosis, and intestinal disease; children regularly lost their lives due to dehydration related to diarrhea. It was as though I had been transported back in time.

Imagine my surprise, then, when stumbling upon rooms of high-end, unused medical equipment, within each make-shift medical clinic. In areas where the average life expectancy is 38 years at birth, I find medical equipment that could transform the state of care. Ambulances, physiological monitors, ultrasound machines, defibrillators (the list goes on) were all available via Western donations. So why weren't they being used?

These were the responses I received when asking that very question to numerous clinics: we don't know how to use the equipment, the equipment broke-down and we don't know how to use it, the equipment broke-down and we cannot afford to fix it, the equipment requires disposables that we cannot afford. Indeed, I would learn that these donated equipment problems were almost universal in clinics across Kenya and in other impoverished areas of the world.

In January of 2010, when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, many were left in need of emergency medical attention. However, only 28 percent of hospital medical equipment was found to function adequately; another 28 percent was working, but lay idle for technical reasons; 30 percent was not working, but repairable; and 14 percent was beyond repair. The proportion of equipment in each condition category was similar regardless of whether the equipment was present prior to the earthquake or was donated afterwards. In another study of medical equipment within developing countries, an average of 38.3 percent (42,925, range across countries: 0.83-47 was non-functional). Jim Loeffler, the medical equipment services director of International Aid, a Michigan-based Christian non-profit that refurbishes medical equipment and ships it abroad, was recently quoted in the Atlantic stating, "Don't send 'Junk for Jesus,' you know?" Many well-meaning religious organizations, medical philanthropists, and visiting doctors intend to help through their medical equipment donations, but this help may be short-lived.

So you want to send aid to developing countries, but you don't want your donation to end up in an unused equipment room? First, try going through a company that offers ongoing technical support to those who receive the equipment. Some of these companies include International Aid, International Medical Equipment Collaborative, or International Medical Equipment and Service. Second, don't send over any equipment that requires specialized training to use correctly, unless you arrange for yearly training over at least the next five years. Third, involve the community in your decision to donate the equipment. If the community is unwilling to use the equipment for any reason, the donation will have been good-for-naught.