Medical aid to needy Children

The Beginning

In the summer of 1998, Maria McArthur was on a family vacation in El Salvador.  At the same time, her daughter Heather had been invited to serve a medical internship at Benjamin Bloom Children’s Hospital (Heather was a pre med student at the time). One day while touring the hospital with her daughter, Mrs. McArthur became aware of the hospital’s acute lack of medical supplies and equipment.  This severe lack of basic medical supplies and equipment resulted in the hospital’s young patients to suffer needlessly.  Observing this great need, McArthur and her daughter decided help these children by whatever means available

Founding the Organization

In the early years of her self-appointed charitable medical aid mission to help these gravely ill children, McArthur paid for all the costs of the medical supplies and equipment from her own money. Later, whatever costs she was unable to cover were paid for by contributions from members of her family, friends, community leaders and medical professionals from her large network of contacts in the medical community. 

The Work Expands

By 2006, McArthur had spent most of her savings on this charitable work.  After years dedicated to providing medical supplies and equipment to children’s hospitals in El Salvador, McArthur’s extensive charitable work had come to the attention of the general public through many newspaper and television stories. As a result of this publicity, several professionals in the field of nonprofit public charities urged McArthur to establish a public benefit corporation to further expand her charitable work with the children of El Salvador.

Non Profit Status

With the encouragement and guidance of these professionals and her family, Mrs McArthur founded The Maria McArthur Children’s Medical Foundation,(www.mariamcfound.org).  This California Public Benefit Corporation was granted a 501(c)(3) tax exempt status under the Internal Revenue Service Code on February 24, 2009.  The granting of her organization’s tax exempt status allowed McArthur to greatly expand the scope and reach of her work with the underserved children of El Salvador.

MedShare

In the fall of 2011, McArthur’s organization was invited by MedShare, (www.medshare.org), to partner with them in their international charitable work. According to Healthcare Without Harm, U.S. hospitals generate more than two million tons of medical waste each year.  Much of that waste is unused medical supplies and equipment.  Meanwhile, the World Health Organization estimates that more then ten million children under the age of five die in the developing world each year due to inadequate medical care.   MedShare collects surplus medical supplies and equipment from hospitals, distributors and manufacturers, and then redistributes these items to qualified healthcare facilities in the developing world.

Partnering With MedShare

With it’s partnership with MedShare, The Maria McArthur Children’s Medical Foundation is now able to massively increase its mission to provide medical supplies and equipment to thousands of underserved, needly children in El Salvador as well as other Latin American countries.  Working with the apparatus already established by MedShare, McArthur and her dedicated volunteers and contributors will now be able to reach out and serve many thousands more children with medical aid.

How You Can Help

Working with MedShare, McArthur’s organization is now able to provide far greater medical aid than ever before.  For every dollar given to The Maria McArthur Children’s Medical Foundation over ten dollars worth of desperately needed, life saving medical supplies and equipment can be delivered to a children’s hospital in El Salvador.  The goal of McArthur’s organization is to collect, package, recycle and distribute $1,000,000 worth of medical supplies and equipment to children’s hospitals in El Salvador.  This can be made possible with donations totaling only $100,000.  Every dollar donated is 100% tax deductible.  No gift is too small.  Please open your hearts and be generous.  Your gift may save the life of a child.