A shipment valued at more than $300,000 was being loaded today in Bismarck for transport to the poor of Guatemala.

For the past six months, the God's Child Project in Bismarck has collected medical equipment, medications, clothing, shoes, school supplies and other items for the project's work in Guatemala; all these were to be loaded into a 40-foot shipping container at Jobbers Moving and Storage in Bismarck with the help of dozens of volunteers. Jobbers has donated equipment and the moving crew's time to help with the shipment.

With the help of the local community, organizers have raised the funds to send the donated items. Enough donations have come in to send a second container; the project is raising funds to send this shipment later in the summer. Shipping charges per container are about $10,000, said Katie Halloran, God's Child special activities coordinator. The container is initially trucked to Omaha, and eventually leaves a New York port by ship for transport to Guatemala. Last year's shipment took about a month to arrive, Halloran said.

In a statement, Jena Gullo, God's Child North Central executive director, said that the donations are "an incredible mix of medical services from local volunteers, donations of equipment from places such as Trinity Hospital in Minot, and financial contributions from local farmers and St. Alexius hospital in Bismarck all coming together."

Among other medical equipment, the shipment contains 19 kidney dialysis machines from Trinity Hospital in Minot. Dr. Ana Luisa, physician at the project's Atkinson Clinic in Antigua, Guatemala, recently treated a female patient with severe kidney disease, Gullo said. The patient lost her unborn baby and nearly her life because of lack of dialysis equipment in the community. Other medical supplies included will be four infant warmers, an EKG machine, gurneys and more than 90 boxes of specialized medical equipment. A recent volunteer in Guatemala secured a donation of five pallets of medications to be used to treat thousands of children and families in Guatemala.

The God's Child Project not only sends donations to Guatemala, but it also distributes items to the local poor, Gullo said, including foster care emergencies, local reservations and charities.

For more information on the God's Child work, contact Gullo at 255-7956 or visit www.GCPNC.org.