“It’s devastating to see such a jewel of the world devastated by this disaster,” Denise Sears told Spectrum News 1 in Louisville, Kentucky. Sears is president and CEO of SOS International, a Louisville nonprofit that sorts and ships unused medical supplies around the world. Her comments came on August 27, 2026, after flash flooding hit communities and infrastructure in Nepal.
Spectrum News reported that more than 350 people were confirmed dead and more than 1,300 were missing, with those numbers expected to rise. Kentuckians wanting to help were asking what to do, and Sears had a few answers.
Supplies are only half the problem
SOS International was already in touch with an Australian group that helps collect and distribute products in that part of the world. Sears said American organizations may step in once the area has stabilized and search and rescue is finished.
When that happens, the needs run wide. “What we have found in rebuilding in other areas impacted by disasters, when you have to rebuild a clinic or a hospital it can be everything from hospital beds to band aids,” Sears said. Her group holds tens of thousands of individual items that could help.
Getting them there is harder. “Because of the terrain, it’s very, very hard to move supplies,” she said. “We don’t want to move things somewhere and then they don’t have the capacity to deploy.” In plain terms, a shipment is useless if the receiving end cannot store it or put it to work.
Her advice to donors
Sears told would-be donors to pick organizations that have worked in the area before. “If an organization has never worked in that type environment, they’re not going to be as effective as those that have been, so it takes a little effort on our part,” she said. She named Nepal’s Red Cross as a good place to start for anyone who wants to support an organization on the ground.
SOS International has distributed unused medical products in more than 100 countries and territories.
