Direct Relief Tracking Hurricane Nolo’s Impacts Across the Pacific

Over the past week, Direct Relief has delivered 615 shipments of requested medical aid to 47 U.S. states and territories, and to 22 countries worldwide. The shipments contained 10.6 million defined daily doses of medication.

This week's shipments included rare disease therapies, vitamins, cardiovascular treatments, antibiotics, and more.

Aid Shipped Ahead of Nolo as Hawai'i Braces for Third Storm in Recent Weeks

Hurricane Nolo is tracking westward across the Pacific, just south of the Hawaiian Islands, and though the storm is not anticipated to make landfall, residents are bracing for heavy rains and flooding impacts, particularly on the Big Island.

"For the eastern and southern portions of the Big Island, Nolo will produce additional rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches with isolated totals of 10 inches, bringing storm totals to 10 to 20 inches with maximum amounts of 25 inches," according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. "This rainfall could produce significant, life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain."

The state is still recovering from the impacts of multiple hurricanes over the last several weeks, and Direct Relief has responded to medical needs from those storms.

This week ahead of Nolo, Direct Relief shipped out medicines and essential medical supplies to health organizations on multiple islands. Emergency medicines were shipped to Hawaiʻi Island Community Health Center, which lost one of its clinic sites during Hurricane Lala and has been using its mobile medical unit to bring care to rural and remote areas of the island.

The health center had pre-positioned medical aid from Direct Relief prior to Lala, and used much of its original emergency stockpile to support that response. This week's shipment will backstop the health center's medical inventory.

Direct Relief also shipped field medic packs for first responders and personal care items for displaced families. On the Big Island and Maui, the organization is providing solar lights and water purification supplies to Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaiʻi.

The organization will continue to respond to medical needs from the storm as they become known.

$40 Million Campaign Launched to Support Safe Births Worldwide

Direct Relief announced a $40 million campaign to support more than 2.5 million safe births worldwide, expanding the organization's longstanding work equipping healthcare providers in regions where maternal mortality, stillbirth, and newborn mortality rates remain critically high. CEO Amy Weaver announced the campaign on stage at the Clinton Global Initiative 2026 Annual Meeting in New York.

The campaign will focus on three core areas: equipping frontline health providers, including midwives; closing resource gaps for local health systems; and strengthening those systems through climate-resilient infrastructure. A central piece of that work is Direct Relief's Midwife Kit, which contains 61 items, including newborn resuscitation tools and magnesium sulfate for preventing eclampsia, and has equipped providers across 35 countries. Since 2012, Direct Relief has delivered more than 6,000 Midwife and Replenishment Kits, facilitating an estimated 300,000 deliveries.

"Every woman deserves skilled care, and every provider deserves the tools to deliver it," Weaver said. "We want to help make that basic expectation a reality for millions more mothers and babies."

Devex Panel Explores Private-Sector Role in Disaster Preparedness

Direct Relief's Chief External Affairs Officer, Jennifer Lotito, joined leaders from BD, Abbott, and Baxter at Devex Impact House during UNGA on Sept. 23 for a panel titled "The New First Responders: Inside the Private-Sector Partnerships Reshaping Disaster Relief." The discussion included Sien Avalos of the BD Foundation, Kathryn McKenzie of the Abbott Fund, and Dr. Verónica Arroyave of the Baxter Foundation, with Devex's Alexandre Cabaret moderating.

The conversation examined how sustained private-sector partnerships can strengthen disaster preparedness, including pre-positioning critical medical supplies, building donations into manufacturing schedules, and investing in backup power, mobile response infrastructure, and community health centers, helping shift the sector from reactive donations toward long-term resilience.

Caribbean Resiliency Work Highlighted at Miami Health Summit

Dr. Byron Scott, Chief Health Officer at Direct Relief, spoke on a panel titled "Building Climate-Resilient Health Systems" at the first KPMG Caribbean Health Summit in Miami last week, highlighting the organization's long-standing work in the region, including responses to multiple disasters over the past decade. He also discussed Direct Relief's funding commitments to resiliency, including solar power, battery systems, generators, and mobile clinics.

Scott spoke to the value of convening partners directly, referencing Direct Relief's 2023 emergency preparedness summit in Puerto Rico with members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, which led to $3 million in grants supporting emergency preparedness and resiliency across the region. The summit drew more than 90 attendees and speakers from across the Caribbean, along with organizations including PAHO, UNOPS, and the World Bank. The summit's sponsor, KPMG, has supported Direct Relief with more than $750,000 in funding over the past 20 years.

Operational Snapshot

UNITED STATES

Direct Relief delivered 574 shipments containing 861,804 doses of medications this past week to organizations, including the following:

Around the World

Outside the US, Direct Relief shipped over 9.7 million defined daily doses of medication, totaling 74,175 pounds, to countries including the following:

Year-to-Date

Since January 1, 2026, Direct Relief has delivered 17.3K shipments to 2,542 partner organizations in 53 U.S. states and territories and 91 countries.

These shipments contained 311.6 million defined daily doses of medication valued at $1.3 billion (wholesale) and totaled 3.5 million pounds.