International Medical Corps and Children’s Health Fund are working together to help communities affected by the catastrophic flooding in the Carolinas caused by Hurricane Florence. Children’s Health Fund (CHF) is supplying a mobile medical clinic (MMC) and driver to International Medical Corps, which will staff the MMC with a team comprising physicians, nurses and support staff.
The organizations’ efforts are part of a larger response by state and local governments to provide critical assistance to rural and other harder-to-reach communities where shelters are overflowing and providing emergency care is difficult. To serve patients affected by a variety of conditions—including wound care, medications, and skin and breathing conditions, among others—the MMC will first travel to Homestead Health Center in Willard, NC.
Nancy Aossey, president and CEO of International Medical Corps, praised the collaboration between the two organizations. “This fully outfitted mobile medical clinic will enable our team of healthcare providers to efficiently and effectively reach a large number of people who’ve been affected by the storm and who have found it difficult to receive treatment,” she said. “Our work with Children’s Health Fund will enable us to further expand our capabilities to provide disaster relief in the United States.”
“Children’s Health Fund is thrilled to be partnering with International Medical Corps in this response, and those to come,” said Dennis Walto, CEO of Children’s Health Fund. “Bringing together International Medical Corps’ global and domestic emergency-response capacity and Children’s Health Fund’s pediatric expertise and mobility will enable us to provide children and families affected by Hurricane Florence with the vital healthcare services they need to make it through this crisis.”
As a global first responder with almost 35 years of experience delivering emergency relief in difficult environments, International Medical Corps is ready to respond immediately when disaster strikes. In 2017, International Medical Corps teams were in Florida and Puerto Rico following hurricanes Irma and Maria, providing medical supplies, clean water storage, generators and cash grants to primary healthcare networks, and deploying mobile medical teams to provide primary healthcare in hard-to-reach areas. With domestic resources stretched as hurricane seasons have intensified in recent years, International Medical Corps is working more closely than ever before with agencies in the United States to respond to disaster.
Children’s Health Fund’s emergency response efforts date back to Hurricane Andrew in Florida in 1992. Since then, CHF has responded to numerous natural and man-made disasters, including Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, Superstorm Sandy in 2012, the Flint Water Crisis in 2016 and, most recently, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017.
ABOUT INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS
Since its inception more than 30 years ago, International Medical Corps’ mission has been consistent: relieve the suffering of those impacted by war, natural disaster and disease by delivering vital healthcare services and by focusing on training. This approach of helping people, and then helping people to help themselves, is critical to returning devastated populations to self-reliance. For more information, visit www.InternationalMedicalCorps.org or visit our social channels on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Medium and YouTube.
ABOUT CHILDREN’S HEALTH FUND
Founded in 1987 by Dr. Irwin Redlener, singer/songwriter Paul Simon and program designer Karen Redlener, Children’s Health Fund’s mission is to bring healthcare directly to homeless and low-income children and their families by expanding access to comprehensive and innovative primary care; reducing “health barriers to learning” that interfere with child development and school performance; responding to the needs of vulnerable children impacted by major public health crises; and improving the health and well-being of children through advocacy and public education efforts. Over the past 30 years, the organization has provided more than 4 million healthcare encounters, often in places where doctors and healthcare providers are in short supply.