LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — While future healthcare workers watch all that is unfolding, some are reaching out to lend a hand.
A local group of medical students are hitting the books while helping get personal protective equipment, known as PPE, to those in need.
Med Supply Drive is a national student-led organization that started at Georgetown University and now has 400 volunteers across 42 different states.
The central Arkansas group, made up of UAMS medical school students, are working tirelessly to give local healthcare workers the equipment they so desperately need.
Sophia Ly, the Regional Coordinator for the Med Supply Drive Arkansas chapter, said they wanted to do anything they could to help.
"We don't have the proper training to help on the front lines, but this is a way we can give back to our community of healthcare workers," she said.
The team is made up of 35 current medical students.
Ly said they're hustling on the side towards one main goal.
"We just want to help make a system to deliver donations of PPE to local hospitals and clinics in need," she said.
Ly, a first-year medical student at UAMS, spearheaded the Central Arkansas chapter of Med Supply Drive.
"What really motivated me to start it was just seeing how there are healthcare workers risking their lives to try to save others," she said.
This selfless act of Arkansans across the state, that Ly said is happening every day without the proper protection.
"Right now, during this unprecedented crisis there's a huge shortage because no one was really expecting this," she said.
Ly said they are now taking matters into their own hands.
The full-time students started reaching out to local businesses and institutions like universities, high schools, and salons.
The group is asking them to donate medical supplies like masks, gloves, goggles, hand sanitizes and more.
"We accept any size of donation, big or small, because every single small piece of medical supplies will help someone," Ly said.
In less than two weeks the team has already collected over 600 masks and over 40,000 gloves.
Ly said week they deliver the supplies to local hospitals and clinics all across the state.
"Even though it's difficult it's really rewarding because I know I am helping people fighting COVID-19," she said.
To donate to Med Supply Drive, you can reach out to them on any of their social media platforms or email them at medsupplydrivear@gmail.com.
The group plans to keep working on this until every hospital and clinic in the state has enough PPE.