2021 Update

We hope you've had a meaningful year and found joy amid the adversity Covid and life brought your way. As the year comes to a close, we want to highlight some of the accomplishments and challenges SPECT has experienced this year. 

10 years of SPECT!

We reached an exciting milestone – it's been ten years since the idea of SPECT came to be, and we are thrilled to see how this small organization is making a global impact!

Since our humble beginnings, we've reached 15 countries, partnered with over 210 healthcare facilities, and trained over 1400 healthcare professionals who have gone on to teach countless others. We've spearheaded research around sterile processing, having our work published in five high-impact journals, increasing awareness of the issues and solutions. We've also advocated for increased attention to sterile processing needs through conference presentations, most recently at the WFHSS World Sterilization Congress in Geneva. We look forward to sharing a more detailed impact report with you in the New Year.

‍2021

Due to travel restrictions, coordinating project logistics has been challenging and led us to limit in-country programs. However, we still managed to safely hold a month-long training program in Uganda this past February. In partnership with FullSoul and Rotary International, we provided training and mentoring to thirty maternal health workers from 10 facilities.

In late Spring, SPECT received funding from Mercy Ships to support the development of 12 sterile processing training videos, which both organizations will use to deliver consistent messaging while expanding sterile processing education. We hope to finish this project by mid-2022 and secure funding to develop an online training program to provide the knowledge base for these videos.

Like many other NGOs who have had to limit in-country work, we've increased our virtual support, from zoom lectures to WhatsApp consultations. While this has decreased our funding significantly, we gratefully received financial support from the Canadian government's loan and wage subsidy program through the first two pandemic waves.

The subsidy and careful budgeting of previous grant funding, as well as donor support, allowed us to continue our advocacy and consulting work. However, the government wage subsidy program has now ended, and we are again being advised not to travel; therefore, we anticipate funds from partners will be limited soon, and we will need to depend more heavily on donations. If you are in a position to support sterile processing education, please visit our Ways to Give page.

We look forward to seeing and supporting our partners on the ground again soon. Until then, we will do our part to stay home, as many of you do, and make the world a safer place.