AmeriCares Global Medical Assistance and Humanitarian Aid Programs

Photo by Matthew McDermott

Close to 2 billion people — one-third of the world's population — have inadequate access to medicines; the majority of them live in developing countries. The people living in these areas are not just victims of news-making catastrophes; they also suffer from ongoing “silent disasters” caused by grinding poverty and a lack of access to medicines.

Poor health and poverty are inextricably linked. In vulnerable areas, children die from preventable or treatable illnesses, adults with debilitating chronic conditions can no longer provide for their families and whole communities are threatened by infectious diseases.

Resource-constrained health care institutions serving the poor communities often lack sufficient medicines and supplies to diagnose conditions and provide life-saving and life-changing treatment. These shortages originate from economic limitations as well as disruptions in supply chains, logistics challenges and political and administrative obstacles. To provide quality care for indigent patients, the health care institutions and health care professionals have an ongoing need for medicines and other medical assistance.

Without medicines, health care institutions lack what the UN Millennium Project calls “the most significant tool that society possesses to prevent, alleviate and cure disease."

On a daily basis AmeriCares Global Medical Assistance program delivers essential tools, which include: prescription and over-the-counter medicines, nutritional supplements, surgical and wound care supplies, hospital supplies, and diagnostics and laboratory supplies.

The Global Medical Assistance program reaches a broad range of institutional beneficiaries through a network of in-country partners. These institutions, located in the United States and 38 countries around the world, include more than 2,000 general and specialty hospitals, outpatient clinics, community health programs, hospice residences, rehabilitation centers and homes for children and the elderly.

AmeriCares largest program, Global Medical Assistance helps to reduce suffering, restore health and save lives on an ongoing basis in the following countries: 

For additional locations of where we work please visit “Where We Work”  and our Emergency Response program page.