The telephone in Jim Russo's Berks County home has been ringing around the clock since the devastating tsunamis struck Southeast Asia on Dec. 26. There have been calls from the U.S. State Department, the World Health Organization and most major drug companies.

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette photos Dr. Vasu Malepati, top photo, an ear, nose and throat specialist from Peters, and his wife, Dr. Durga Malepati, below, a pediatrician, will travel to Sri Lanka to assist victims of the tsunami that struck Southeast Asia earlier this week. Click photo for larger image. Related coverage 'We want to be there, to feel good satisfaction'

Russo -- executive director of the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations, one of many nonprofit organizations that industry groups created to channel products to disaster victims -- is so busy that "I've had nothing to eat yet today," he said this week. "But I love this work," in which he matches major drug and medical manufacturers with major relief agencies.

Similar groups exist for manufacturers of school and office supplies, shoes and apparel, children's products and other goods -- all part of a complex pattern of corporate giving, large and small, that goes on quietly in times of crisis. U.S. corporate donations already have surpassed the initial $35 million in aid earmarked by the federal government, according to the Associated Press, with the biggest being $10 million in cash and $25 million worth of drugs from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.

But small businesses have also stepped up. For example, Brother's Brother, the Pittsburgh foundation that transports relief supplies, got a call from the owners of a Carnegie restaurant that recently reopened after being inundated in the Sept. 17 flood.

Nick and Sabrina Romano, owners of Ciao, An Italian Cafe, gave $200. "We are fortunate. We had a fabulous holiday season. Things are back better than they were before the flood," said Nick Romano. "We wanted to give back."

Mine Safety Appliances in O'Hara dispatched a tractor-trailer load of face-mask respirators to Brother's Brother. And Mylan Laboratories is among several companies that regularly donate medical supplies to Brother's Brother, enabling the organization to provide medical supplies to doctors from the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Penn Hills who are traveling to the region. The tragedy's timing has hampered relief efforts somewhat, with staffs at many companies depleted during the Christmas holiday week. But calls to area corporations found many companies preparing to gather and ship packages.

GlaxoSmithKline's North American Consumer Healthcare headquarters in Moon will be coordinating donations next week, spokeswoman Melissa Dunn said. It plans to send some of its products, such as toothbrushes and toothpaste, but priority will go to prescription drugs from its London-based parent company, "which obviously are much more urgently needed," she said.

At Eat'n Park's headquarters at the Waterfront in Homestead, discussions are focusing on what relief organization to tap as a partner to distribute donations, spokeswoman Collen Coll said. Following Hurricane Ivan, the regional restaurant chain raised more than $33,000 for flood relief victims by placing donation jars at its cash registers, and it expects to do something similar this time.

Highmark spokesman Phil Neubauer said the region's largest health insurer has pledged to match all donations that employees make to the Red Cross by Jan. 14. Alcoa also is matching Red Cross donations and, through its corporate foundation, already has made an initial grant of $25,000 to the American Red Cross International Response fund.

For many relief organizations , the calls from companies seeking to help has been overwhelming. "The scope and scale of this disaster is just enormous ... and we've had a tremendous outpouring of response," said Brenda Nachreiner, a corporate relations officer for World Vision, a major relief agency with a transit hub in Sewickley,

Nachreiner works closely with the industry charities that supply new goods to relief organizations, as well as with individual companies. The latter includes Johnson & Johnson, from which she expects to receive emergency medical kits.

But the road that a J&J donation travels before being shipped to Asia illustrates the complex relationships between corporations and relief groups. J&J, World Vision and a Christian medical relief organization called MAP International are all members of the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations, the nonprofit that matches drug makers with relief agencies

Through the partnership, J&J gives some supplies directly to World Vision but gives even more to MAP International because it specializes in medical relief and public health. MAP International, in turn, has a close relationship with World Vision, so World Vision gets the bulk of its J&J products from MAP International.

The partnership was formed in part to stop medical "dumping" on stricken nations. Desperate doctors often opened boxes of medicine only to find they were expired, or contained unneeded items. And they had no safe way to dispose of the expired -- and often dangerous -- drugs, the partnership's Russo said.

"I have never met any greater bunch of people than the people who work in this donations community," he said. "People leave their competitive instincts at the door."