After the Dec. 26 tsunami, some U.S. aid organizations received so many donations of clothing and food that they stopped accepting contributions until they could figure out how to get the supplies to affected villages.

It's a far different scene at Global Links, a Pittsburgh nonprofit organization that's been sending medical supplies to needy countries for 14 years. Boxes of donated supplies arrive from hospitals around the country, are repackaged by volunteers, and are sent out again to countries like Cuba and Haiti in a matter of weeks.

It's this type of thoughtful, long-term aid that is needed throughout the world, said the director of the Pan American Health Organization, who was in town yesterday to honor Global Links.

"When you focus on the end result, people get the services they need," said Dr. Mirta Roses Periago in an interview. "This is not just a one-shot donation. This is a different enterprise."

Periago's visit to Global Links came shortly after the organization's 15th birthday and on the eve of an expansion. A $600,000 grant from Acusis, a Pittsburgh-based medical transcription service, will allow Global Links to move into a new facility and broaden its infrastructure.

In an unusual partnership, Global Links works with the Pan American Health Organization, or PAHO, to determine which areas are most in need of medical supplies. Staff members evaluate each hospital's needs, and will not send certain supplies if they feel that a hospital is not equipped to handle them.

Organizations that provide aid to Caribbean nations, Central and South America, and Africa have been affected by December's tsunami in the Indian Ocean, said Periago, with aid shifting to the areas of Asia that have gotten the most attention from news media.

"America is a very generous country," she said. But "we say, phase your help, because the needs are going to be ongoing."

Global Links has done just that. Since 1989, it has sent 242 shipments of medical aid worth more than $110 million to institutions in 70 countries. It is the leading provider of medical aid to Cuba, although some of its donations have been curtailed by the U.S. government in recent years. After 15 years, the organization still is broadening its goals.