Medical Teams International
Encyclopedia
Medical Teams International (formerly Northwest Medical Teams) is a non-profit humanitarian aid
and global health
organization
. Medical Teams International has:
of this non-governmental organization (NGO)
is "to demonstrate the love of Christ to people affected by disaster, conflict and poverty." They provide humanitarian aid
to people in need regardless of a person’s religious background, affiliation or experience.
Aid recipients are not asked to participate in faith-based activities in order to receive medical care or supplies. Volunteers are welcome regardless of faith as long as they can support the mission of Medical Teams International.
s escaping the killing fields. Twenty-eight medical volunteers joined the first team to Thailand
to care for survivors of the Khmer Rouge
.
This work has now expanded beyond their International Headquarters and Distribution Center in Portland, Oregon
. They now have offices in Seattle, Washington, D.C.
, Minnesota
and Michigan
. Additionally, Medical Teams International has field offices in Cambodia
, Indonesia
, Liberia
, Mexico
, Moldova
, Sri Lanka
, Uganda
, Uzbekistan
and Vietnam
.
"Medical Teams International's work is focused on several key areas where our staff and volunteers bring tremendous expertise. Our ultimate goal is to serve the people stricken by disaster, conflict and poverty all over the world with the most effective programs possible.
We use internationally accepted guidelines which are determined by the global health community. Our headquarters and field staff consistently review our commitments based on needs, capacity and potential for impact."
Their programs include:
to providing mobile medical clinics in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Uganda
to forming emergency medical services (EMS)
programs in Moldova
.
and supplies to people in need. More than 96 percent of all donations goes to their programs and services.
Donations also include medicines and medical supplies given by institutions, companies and individuals to be sent to hospitals and clinics in more than 70 countries each year. These donations include bandages, medicines, sterilizers, medical instruments and surgical equipment. Shipments of these supplies have equipped and modernized surgical units and clinics and improved medical workers' ability to care for patients.
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...
and global health
Global health
Global health is the health of populations in a global context and transcends the perspectives and concerns of individual nations. Health problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact, are often emphasized...
organization
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
. Medical Teams International has:
- mobilized 2,000 teams since 1979.
- shipped $1.3 billion in medical aid since 1986.
- provided care to 4.5 million people in 53 nations in 2008.
- sent more than 2,600 volunteers serving annually in its various programs all over the world.
Mission
The missionCredo
A credo |Latin]] for "I Believe") is a statement of belief, commonly used for religious belief, such as the Apostles' Creed. The term especially refers to the use of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Mass, either as text, Gregorian chant, or other musical settings of the...
of this non-governmental organization (NGO)
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
is "to demonstrate the love of Christ to people affected by disaster, conflict and poverty." They provide humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...
to people in need regardless of a person’s religious background, affiliation or experience.
Aid recipients are not asked to participate in faith-based activities in order to receive medical care or supplies. Volunteers are welcome regardless of faith as long as they can support the mission of Medical Teams International.
History
An Oregon businessman, Ron Post, founded Northwest Medical Teams (now Medical Teams International) in 1979, in response to reports of thousands of Cambodian refugeeRefugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s escaping the killing fields. Twenty-eight medical volunteers joined the first team to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
to care for survivors of the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
.
This work has now expanded beyond their International Headquarters and Distribution Center in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. They now have offices in Seattle, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. Additionally, Medical Teams International has field offices in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, Liberia
Liberia
Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
and Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
.
Programs
From Medical Teams International’s Web site http://www.medicalteams.org:"Medical Teams International's work is focused on several key areas where our staff and volunteers bring tremendous expertise. Our ultimate goal is to serve the people stricken by disaster, conflict and poverty all over the world with the most effective programs possible.
We use internationally accepted guidelines which are determined by the global health community. Our headquarters and field staff consistently review our commitments based on needs, capacity and potential for impact."
Their programs include:
- Community healthCommunity healthCommunity health, a field of public health, is a discipline that concerns itself with the study and betterment of the health characteristics of biological communities. While the term community can be broadly defined, community health tends to focus on geographic areas rather than people with shared...
and developmentCommunity developmentCommunity development is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities.... - Dental care
- Disaster responseDisaster responseDisaster response is a phase of the disaster management cycle. Its preceding cycles aim to reduce the need for a disaster response, or to avoid it altogether.The level of disaster response depends on a number of factors and particular situation awareness...
- Emergency Medical ServicesEmergency medical servicesEmergency medical services are a type of emergency service dedicated to providing out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient, or the medical practitioner, believes constitutes a medical emergency...
and training - HIVHIVHuman immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome , a condition in humans in which progressive failure of the immune system allows life-threatening opportunistic infections and cancers to thrive...
and AIDSAIDSAcquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...
care and prevention - Medical services and training
- Medical supply distribution
Volunteers
Medical professionals from around the world volunteer on teams that address needs ranging from training midwives in HondurasHonduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
to providing mobile medical clinics in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
to forming emergency medical services (EMS)
Emergency medical services
Emergency medical services are a type of emergency service dedicated to providing out-of-hospital acute medical care and/or transport to definitive care, to patients with illnesses and injuries which the patient, or the medical practitioner, believes constitutes a medical emergency...
programs in Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
.
Finances
Medical Teams International is non-profit, supported by the donations of individuals, corporations, medical institutions and churches. Every $30 helps send $4,893 in humanitarian aidHumanitarian aid
Humanitarian aid is material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, typically in response to humanitarian crises including natural disaster and man-made disaster. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity...
and supplies to people in need. More than 96 percent of all donations goes to their programs and services.
Donations also include medicines and medical supplies given by institutions, companies and individuals to be sent to hospitals and clinics in more than 70 countries each year. These donations include bandages, medicines, sterilizers, medical instruments and surgical equipment. Shipments of these supplies have equipped and modernized surgical units and clinics and improved medical workers' ability to care for patients.
- MinistryWatch gave Medical Teams International its 5-Star designation and included the organization in its list of 30 Shining Light Ministries.
- In 2009, Charity Navigator, the largest evaluator of charitable organizations in the U.S., awarded its highest rating (4-Star) to Medical Teams International for the seventh year in a row.