When medical aid and services are sent into war zones or disaster areas, where do the supplies and personnel come from? How are aid packages and their contents organized and what infrastructure is needed to make it happen?

Health Partners International of Canada brings much needed medicines, vaccines and other supplies to some of the world’s most needed in developing countries. They have programs for Canadian physicians, NGOs and humanitarians travelling from Canada to the developing world and occasionally work with the World Health Organization and with countries in need of medical aid.
Example:
* Equip a doctor from Winnipeg to open a temporary clinic in Haiti while on annual vacation,
* Help an NGO deliver medical care for months in Malawi.
* Provide Afghanistan’s Ministry of Health needed medicines for clinics and hospitals.
Another program is the Physician Travel Pack–Each year hundreds of Canadian health-care professionals and other humanitarians take part in short-term medical missions. PTPs are carried by people working in a variety of situations, such as a Canadian doctor practicing in a remote part of Brazil for two weeks or a larger Canadian team heading to Kenya for two months.

• John Kelsall, president of Health Partners International of Canada