AUTHOR: MARIA CHRONOPOULOU | PHOTOGRAPHY: VASILIS KOUROUPIS
– Thanasis, what did you have in mind at the beginning of GIVMED?
– The idea came after a personal experience, when someone from my close environment passed away. We had a lot of medications left over and they definitely had to go somewhere and not just get thrown away. I remember my mother trying to donate them, something very difficult, because she could not find a way in Tripoli, where she lives, to get these meds to the people who needed them. Having this in my mind, I tried to create something that was also of a public benefit nature. Somehow I managed to, and I found the right people and we got started.
– Did you start as a team?
– At first, I shared this idea with some friends and people that I knew, who could help me. Officially, we started in November 2015 and by May 2016, the first team of 5 developers, 2 people with business backgrounds, and our graphic designer was formed. At that time we were all Electrical and Mechanical Engineering students at the Polytechnic School. Since then, the team has changed, some spend less time, because of other obligations, others more, and somehow this is how we are evolving.
– How come you wanted to set up something of your own from the start?
– I had some experience, having worked in a multinational and a startup, and I was also involved in volunteering. Moreover, I wanted to do something to help people, so all this led me to this decision.
– You are one of the NGOs that have also been covered by foreign media.
– Indeed. The truth is that there are just two similar initiatives to GIVMED—there is one in San Francisco and another one, dealing with something similar, in Egypt. In general, there are no corresponding initiatives that enable donations of medications and this sharing economy.
– Which are the medicines you see that people most need?
– We see that there is a demand for cheap medicines such as Depon, but also for more expensive ones, such as cancer medicines that are very important. Especially for such meds, there is a large supply, because it is very common for a person to pass away and for their relatives to want to donate them, through our platform, to someone who really needs them.
– What exactly is the process?
– Essentially, GIVMED is an NGO where, through the application we have developed, a citizen can donate their medicines. They take a picture of it, we understand which medicine it is about, when it expires, and we connect it in real time to the needs we have recorded at various public benefit organisations. Then the citizen, by consulting the map on our site, finds their closest public benefit organisation and delivers their medicines. Depending on the user’s technology level, they can either use our application or invite us to give them guidelines. In addition to the application, we have created a system only for the public benefit organisations, where they enter their medicines into their system, which they can either donate or store in a warehouse management system. This way, every public benefit organisation can see what is available and order the medicines they need through our system.
– What do we define as a public benefit organization?
– As a public benefit organisation, we define social pharmacies, where the difference between them and regular/conventional pharmacies is that they receive donations of medicines from private individuals, which are free of charge to people in need. Social pharmacies may be nursing homes, closed facilities for children, for mentally ill patients, and they must clearly have a pharmacist, on one hand, and on the other hand, must meet specific conditions for the storage of their medicines. So, before we hand over any medicines, we sign a contract where we know that certain specific standards are being met. As GIVMED, we neither receive nor give medicines to individuals. Everything is done through public benefit organizations. And of course, it is the pharmacist who will check and judge if a medicine can be consumed by a patient.
– I have seen that some medicines are not accepted.
– Correct. Through the application there is a safety net, which does not allow the donation of some medicines, such as expired medicines, the ones that need to be stored in fridges, medicines that contain narcotics or opiates, open creams or open syrups. All these can be stated by the user in the system, but they cannot be donated.
– What are the challenges you have faced?
– One challenge is the institutional framework, which is not clear. That is, state-funded social pharmacies are not fully harmonised with the Ministry of Health. Another issue we have faced is that we had nothing to do with medicines and civil society as a team and we invested a lot of time on understanding how this sector works. Fortunately, we are lucky to meet people who have trusted us and we saw how all this works. Even today, there are things we do not know, but we are constantly trying to learn. Finally, public benefit organisations, initially, were reluctant to work with us, because there is always some mistrust of anything innovative, which is logical. Now, we have proven our actions and some very serious organisations have supported us. Thus the initial mistrust subsides.
– Have you thought of expanding to other countries?
– We started as an NGO and it is our choice to be an NGO and not a startup, because what we are interested in is solving the problem in Greece and that all people have access to their medicines. We could very simply (as a startup) create an application that works all over the world where everyone could donate their medicines. Obviously if someone wants to do something similar in another country, we can give them the know-how, but our immediate plans are to help people in Greece.
– Do you think we show generosity as a people?
– I do not know that. I have not lived in another country and so I cannot judge. But what I see is that many people have helped in this case. It may be simple to give someone the medicines they do not need, and maybe they would give them anyway, but those who donated them went through this process, they thought about it and they got involved even a little. For me this is encouraging, I see positive evidence that we, the people, are not totally alienated or that we are not completely indifferent to what is happening around us, which is important.
