Welcome to Health Matters Worldwide
Providing Underdeveloped Countries with Basic Medical Supplies
Welcome to Health Matters Worldwide
Providing Underdeveloped Countries with Basic Medical Supplies
My Story
How You Can Help
My Story
My name is Noah Chow and my goal is to collect and distribute basic medical supplies to third world health care centres around the world. I encourage you to take a few minutes to read my story and learn what has inspired me to start this non-profit organization!
How You Can Help
How You Can Help
How You Can Help
Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals and improve medical conditions in developing countries. Your generous donation will fund our mission.
My Story
Where It Began
Between my co-op placement at Markham Stouffville Hospital and my time as an EMR super user at The Hospital for Sick Children, I grew accustomed to a certain version of healthcare; one where medical staff had access to virtually unlimited resources and the best technology available to treat their patients. I didn't yet know how rare that was.
That changed in the summer of 2017, when I joined a medical volunteer program with Projects Abroad in Bharatpur, Nepal. Over three weeks, I worked alongside doctors and nurses in local hospitals, observing how medicine was practiced in a developing country and quickly learned that the real value of the trip had little to do with medicine itself. It was about becoming a better listener, a more compassionate care provider, and someone capable of working across unfamiliar cultures, languages, religions, and political realities. I still believe that immersing yourself in a community unlike your own teaches lessons no classroom can, often ones you never expected to learn.
Under the guidance of my assigned doctor, I helped raise basic health awareness in the local community, starting simple conversations about hygiene that I had always taken for granted. Those three weeks held some of the most rewarding moments of my life and some of the most difficult.
What challenged me most was the disparity I couldn't look away from. I watched it every day at the hospital: exposed needles left on the floor, patients resting on unwashed bedsheets, healthcare workers treating people without gloves or masks simply because there weren't enough to go around. I saw doctors and nurses who clearly cared deeply for their patients, held back again and again not by a lack of skill or compassion, but by a lack of the most basic supplies. It was impossible to grow numb to it.
That experience gave me a small window into how faith and hope function in places where opportunity is so limited where freedom from poverty or access to healthcare can't be taken for granted. When so much is out of your hands, hope, and sometimes prayer, become part of how people reach for a safer tomorrow.
When I returned home to my co-op placement at the hospital, I started noticing something I'd never paid attention to before: when departments switched suppliers or upgraded to a new product version, the old often still sterile and unused supplies were simply discarded. I saw the same pattern with patients under the care of Community Care Access Centres, who were frequently left with unused sterile supplies once their treatment ended, items that could no longer be used locally but were still perfectly safe.
That was the moment the idea took hold: if I could gather these supplies before they went to waste, I could get them into the hands of the people who needed them most. That idea became Health Matters Worldwide.
Where We Have Gone
Help Our Cause
Medical Supply Donations
If you are a doctor or a nurse and your unit is throwing out unused medical supplies either as a result of a new supplier, technology or any other reason. Please put them aside and contact us, one of our representatives will be happy to pick up the supplies.
Financial Donations
I currently have medical supplies ready to be shipped. I have contacts who are willing to take these supplies on their medical mission abroad, but need financial donations to help ship these supplies to their destination.
Financial donations will be used to fund:
- Shipping Cost
- Fees
- Boxes
Any donation big or small would be greatly appreciated.
About Me
My name is Noah and I have a Master's in Spine Biomechanics from Wilfrid Laurier University, where my research into intervertebral disc mechanics has been published in four peer-reviewed journals, including The Spine Journal and the European Spine Journal. My work has been recognized with the ISSLS Young Researcher Grant, an NSERC Canadian Graduate Scholarship, and a Dean's Graduate Scholarship. Alongside my studies, I led a team of five researchers across various spine biomechanics work and presented my findings to industry professionals at international conferences.
But my drive to help others extends well beyond the lab. As a Laurier Campus Ambassador, I guided hundreds of prospective students through their first steps toward university, and as an Instructional Assistant in the Department of Chemistry, I supported the next generation of science students in the classroom. I also spent five years as an Emergency First Responder for Laurier's campus, providing first aid and coordinating fellow responders during major campus events, experience that shaped my belief that meaningful care means showing up when it's needed most.
It's that same belief that led me to found Health Matters Worldwide, channeling my background in health science and my passion for service into a mission of getting essential medical supplies to the communities that need them most.
When I'm not in the lab, you'll usually find me chasing summits or exploring the water. I've climbed peaks like Island Peak and Kilimanjaro, dive as a Certified Advanced Open Water diver, and log hours on my bike. I've found that the same discipline and resilience these pursuits demand are what drive me in my work and volunteering as well.
Founder and President of Health Matters Worldwide
Noah Chow
My Administration Team
Aden Chow, Director, Finance and Administration
Nasrin Jiwa, Office Administration