Is there an old pair of crutches stored in your garage or a wheelchair packed away in the attic that no one uses?

Or how about a nebulizer that perhaps is no longer needed because your child has outgrown his asthma?

Instead of allowing them to gather dust on a shelf, you could put them into the hands of patients in developing countries who are in desperate need of them.

St. Clair Hospital and Global Links, a Pittsburgh-based humanitarian organization, are teaming up to sponsor a drive to collect home health care items from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 23 at the St. Clair Hospital Outpatient Center parking lot on Oxford Drive in Bethel Park.

The drive is seeking home health care items that include crutches, walkers, canes, manual wheelchairs and nebulizers, which are used to treat asthma.

Through Global Links, a humanitarian organization with an environmental emphasis that was founded 20 years ago, the items will be sent to countries such as Cuba, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Jamaica.

Angela Garcia, Global Links deputy director, said the collections have a dual purpose: To provide the much-needed medical supplies for needy populations and to keep the keep the local unused supplies out of landfills.

While most patients in the United States have easy access to home health care supplies through their health insurance, the items are scarce in developing countries, Ms. Garcia said.

"If you are incapacitated and you don't have a wheelchair, you don't have any mobility at all. Or if you break a bone you might not have a crutch unless you whittle one of your own," Ms. Garcia said.

Nebulizers, which are used to administer medication to asthma patients in distress, are in extremely short supply in the developing countries, yet the demand is great. In some cases, an entire community shares one nebulizer that is located at a hospital.

That means mothers sometimes walk long distances, carrying their children, who are having difficulty breathing to wait in line at a hospital to use the nebulizer.

In the United States, Ms. Garcia said, most asthma patients have their own nebulizers for use at home.

"I don't want to see any of these disposed of in Western Pennsylvania or in the country," Ms. Garcia said.

For years, Global Links has collected used or surplus hospital equipment to be sent to developing countries. The effort to hold home health care equipment drives is new.

Ms. Garcia said two previous drives were held, one by the Bidwell Training Center and one by UPMC Senior Living Network. But the St. Clair drive is the first one sponsored by a hospital. She's hoping to partner with other area hospitals as well.

Tania Lyon, director of organizational performance improvement at St. Clair Hospital, said she was looking to increase the hospital's involvement with Global Links at the same time the organization was looking for partners on the home health care items drives.

"We see this as the first step in a closer, long-term relationship with Global Links," Ms. Lyon said. "This is a very good thing for both of us."

Ms. Lyon said the hospital likely will make the collection an annual event.

At this year's collection, a truck will be located in the parking lot of the outpatient center to accept donations. Donation receipts will be provided by Global Links.