November 2001 • POST-ASSEMBLY EDITION
These Vietnamese children were beneficiaries of humanitarian aid delivered in February 2001 by a Physicians With Heart delegation. Ten Physicians With Heart airlifts since 1993 have provided products valued at more than $52.25 million wholesale to former Soviet republics and Vietnam.
Travel uncertainties force modification of Moldova airlift
The Physicians With Heart humanitarian airlift scheduled to depart for the Republic of Moldova on Oct. 11 was modified just days before the departure date, in light of (then) anticipated U.S. military action in Afghanistan.
"Instead of canceling the project, we have divided the product delivery and delegation/education components," said Daniel Ostergaard, M.D., AAFP vice president for international and interprofessional activities and a member of the Physicians With Heart executive committee.
All donated medicines will be delivered as scheduled by the U.S. State Department, said Ostergaard. Humanitarian items, including clothing, bedding, toiletries and school supplies collected for 140 orphans in the Sarrata Galbena Orphanage, will also be delivered as promised.
Staff members from Heart to Heart International will be in Moldova to oversee the distribution of products. The initial load valued at $7.7 million wholesale will arrive in October, and another shipment valued at $5.8 million wholesale may be delivered in late November. The previously arranged logistical system of transportation and delivery will be maintained.
"Depending on the world situation, we are looking at rescheduling the delegation's travel in February 2002," said Ostergaard. Medical education symposia, documentation of deliveries, and visits to health care sites and the orphanage will be conducted at that time. Ostergaard touted the upside to the modified Moldova schedule. "We will have a positive impact in Moldova twice," he said.
The Academy, the AAFP Foundation and Heart to Heart International, a humanitarian aid organization based in Olathe, Kan., are founding partners of Physicians With Heart.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2001 by American Academy of Family Physicians.
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