Looking Forward 2009

In 2009, AmeriCares will continue to answer the call for help by serving as a bridge between companies willing to donate products and the health care workers who desperately need medicines and supplies. And we will continue to build on our past successes and lessons learned. In 2009, we will continue our work, including:

• Ensuring Immediate Response to Disasters
• Fostering Disaster Preparedness
• Rebuilding and Supporting Health Care Systems
• Promoting Solutions to the Global Health Crisis
• Helping More People Than Ever Before
• Using Resources Wisely and Effectively
• Looking Forward, Going Forward

Ensuring Immediate Response
Natural disasters and civil strife can strike without warning, affecting poor and vulnerable communities most of all. During an emergency, people have a hard time getting health care and medicines just when they are needed the most. Relief is most critical in the first 48 hours following a disaster. And that’s where AmeriCares comes in. For over 26 years we have been delivering critical medicines and medical supplies around the world. Our ability to mobilize quickly allows us to deliver what is needed most to treat people in crisis.

That’s why AmeriCares is acting now and planning for 2009; before the next hurricane, earthquake or civil unrest unfolds. We are working with our partners to build our reserves now so we have life-saving medicines and supplies on hand to help people whenever and wherever they need it – no matter what.

Fostering Disaster Preparedness
Disasters are a matter of when and where – not if. As we help communities rebuild in 2009, we will expand our disaster preparedness and trauma training so our partners on the ground are better able to respond – treating patients, saving lives and restoring health in the immediate aftermath of an emergency. AmeriCares has seen this advance work pay off and we want to spread the success. We sponsored disaster preparedness emergency training in India and Sri Lanka after the 2004 tsunami. The staff in India were well prepared, remained calm, and saved lives when an explosion rocked the city of Ahmedabad in 2008 because they had participated in a disaster preparedness course supported by AmeriCares.

Rebuilding and Supporting Health Care Systems
Following the emergency relief stage of a disaster, AmeriCares supports recovery and rehabilitation efforts for local health care providers. In 2009, AmeriCares will continue to provide medicines and supplies to over 170 local partner organizations in order to restore damaged health facilities and outfit new clinics in order to treat survivors of a disaster or crisis.

Promoting Solutions to the Global Health Crisis
AmeriCares will continue its programs to help improve access to life-saving medicines around the world. These programs include:

• Reversing the blinding effects of Trachoma. Medical advances make it possible to cure this painful, infectious eye disease, but it continues to blind 84 million of the world’s most vulnerable people. When this blindness strikes, the cycle of poverty becomes even harder to break by making work and school nearly impossible. In 2009, AmeriCares will deliver 1,000 specialized surgical kits to help skilled doctors save the sight – and vision for the future – of nearly 80,000 people in Africa.
  
  
• Health Care Worker Safety Program in Tanzania. When one health care provider gets sick, hundreds of patients can suffer. That’s why AmeriCares is working hard to protect thousands of doctors and nurses against dangers, such as needle sticks and contact with hazardous waste. We’re also launching a program to reduce the chances of getting sick with training and education programs that promote proper safety, disposal and hygiene programs.
  
  
• AmeriCares India. AmeriCares has delivered more than $45 million worth of lifesaving medicines and medical supplies to health care providers in India for over 15 years. Through the establishment of AmeriCares India, we are deepening our commitment to the region in order to help more people live longer, healthier lives. Our warehouse in Mumbai will help us deliver more aid to people in India; easily process medicines donated by leading health care companies in India; and quickly respond to emergencies and natural disasters within India, Asia and Africa.

Helping More People Than Ever Before
Over the past 25 years, AmeriCares has reduced suffering, restored health, and saved millions of lives by delivering medical and emergency aid valued at more than $8 billion to 137 countries. The AmeriCares model works. Fast delivery of medicines and supplies combined with a network of local health care providers gets help to as many people as possible. And when hospitals and clinics are damaged by natural disaster or violent conflict — we stay on to help repair health facilities and build new clinics.

Yet, according to the United Nations, almost 2 billion people — one-third of the world’s population — have little or no access to life-saving medicines. Each year, 11 million children die needlessly due to easily cured illnesses such as diarrhea. The only way to touch more lives is to continue AmeriCares programs around the world. For this reason, AmeriCares has set an ambitious goal to double the annual volume of medicines and relief supplies by 2012.

Using Resources Wisely and Effectively
The AmeriCares model is time-tested, cost-effective and experience-driven. Every $100 in cash contributions received enables AmeriCares to deliver more than $3, 400 in humanitarian relief, including medicines, medical supplies, nutritional supplements and other assistance.

Looking Forward, Going Forward
When help is needed, time means lives. AmeriCares has perfected a delivery system that enables us to be on the ground, anywhere in the world, within 48 hours. Equally important to the speed of our response is the capacity to respond. The generosity of our donors helps us respond faster and enables a more robust delivery of medicines to help in times of crisis, including natural disasters and civil conflicts that can cripple already vulnerable populations.

Give now to support our work in 2009 »