Commodity Acquisition

As part of a needs-based approach, Counterpart International acquires in-kind donations from various donors, including U.S.-based charitable groups and Department of Defense excess property sites around the world. These donations consist of a variety of essential humanitarian aid commodities including clothing, shelter items, basic medical and hygiene supplies, household furnishings and food. Community Humanitarian Assistance Program (CHAP) procedures require thorough inspection of all items to ensure that they meet CHAP and U.S. government standards. A network of inspection personnel throughout the U.S. help meet inspection requirements in addition to ensuring proper inventorying, packaging and loading of all humanitarian aid shipments. Counterpart also maintains a warehouse facility in North Carolina, which is used as a consolidation point for our humanitarian aid shipments.

Counterpart utilizes its CHAPBASE system to manage the entire acquisitions process. From offering shipment inventories to overseas staff for approval to loading items into sea containers, each item is tracked from donor to end destination. The accountability that this system facilitates allows Counterpart to provide accurate feedback to in-kind donors and program sponsors in a timely and efficient manner. As a testament to Counterpart’s reliability, CHAP has been working with many of its in-kind donors for over a decade.