AmeriCares through its on-going partnership with the Colombian Order of Malta is consistently able to bring medicines and medical supplies to some of the country’s most remote and under-served communities, reaching more than 50 active sub-recipients.

Snapshot of Colombia:

Colombia is home to one of the world’s largest internally displaced person populations as a result of the country’s ongoing civil conflict. Difficult terrain, pervasive poverty, and vulnerability to disasters pose numerous barriers to improving health in Colombia. Critical health issues:

• Surge of rural citizens to overpopulated cities and towns places an enormous strain on extremely limited national health services and sanitation systems.
• Communicable diseases including malaria, dengue fever and pneumonia pose major public health problems.
• More than one in ten Colombian children suffers from malnutrition

Since 1985, AmeriCares has delivered more than $59 million worth of medicines, medical supplies, and other humanitarian aid to Colombia through multiple partners, including the Asociacion Colombiana de Caballeros de la Orden de Malta (Colombian Order of Malta), and practitioners travelling through our Medical Outreach Program.

In addition to supporting over 50 sub-recipients throughout the country and equipping medical teams traveling to remote areas, the Order of Malta runs two primary health clinics serving more than 100,000 people in shanty towns around Bogota. Services include:

• Children’s supplemental feeding program
• Testing for HIV/AIDS
• Dental services
• Treatment for respiratory infections and chronic diseases

In July 2012, AmeriCares quickly responded to flooding after severe seasonal rains affected over 75,000 people throughout the Departments of Choco and Putumayo, Colombia. As part of our Global Pre-Positioning Initiative, our in-country partner was able to rapidly respond, distributing personal hygiene kits, bedding, and water purification tablets to hundreds of families, many of whom had their livelihoods completely destroyed.

In early 2011, devastating floods from the heaviest rains in decades affected more than 2.2 million people in communities covering over 60% of the country. We responded with emergency shipments of critical medicines and support for water purification to help the 300,000 people who lost their homes and their livelihood. Read more.

In 1985, AmeriCares began providing aid to Colombia in response to the volcanic eruption of Navado del Ruiz. This eruption destroyed thousands of homes, killed over 25,000 people, and remains the fourth deadliest volcanic explosion in recorded history. AmeriCares provided emergency relief supplies to survivors through a series of airlifts and sea shipments.

Mother and Child Health:

A successful Neonatal Care and Adolescent Mothers Program, supported by AmeriCares, helped reverse the alarmingly high infant mortality rate in Cartagena, making a crucial difference in the lives of Cartagena’s young women and children.

The programs, established by the Fundación Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar, aimed to expand maternal and infant health services at its Medical Center and reduce mortality for this vulnerable population. Overall, since the start of the program infant mortality in Cartagena has fallen by nearly 50 percent. We send significant shipments of critical medicines and needed medical supplies to the Fundación in support of their efforts. Read More »

Disaster Preparedness:

We are helping partners purchase and pre-position critical emergency supplies to help displaced families within 72 hours of a disaster. Read More »

AmeriCares also donates medical products to qualified U.S. health care professionals who are traveling to Colombia to provide charitable medical care. Through this program, donated medicines and medical supplies reach impoverished and isolated communities where even basic medical care is inaccessible to the poor or often non-existent. AmeriCares donations cure infections, relieve pain, help patients manage chronic diseases and make life-changing surgeries possible.

Find out more about our Medical Outreach program