Have you ever thought how your life would be impacted if no medical care was available to you in a time of need? There are many people around the world who can’t see a doctor for a simple cough, needless to say a serious illness. Day after day people all over the world are suffering and dying because they don’t have the proper health care. Medecins Sans Frontieres or better known as Doctors Without Borders is a medical humanitarian organization that provides emergency aid all over the world to people who are affected by diseases, famine, warzones, and so much more. Volunteers take their time and knowledge to cure, and bring hope to those who are hanging on to their lives. Doctors Without Borders is an exceptional organization to support because …show more content…
300 volunteers including the 13 founders made up the MSF foundation, doctors, nurses, clinicians and journalists. They started off with their first mission in 1972, in Nicaragua where an earthquake hit devastating over 10,000 people. Soon after in 1974, the MSF foundation headed to Honduras where thousands of civilians were in need of help due to a horrifying hurricane. They didn’t stop there, the MSF foundation kept providing support to those countries who needed relief, they state “MSF was created in the belief that all people should have access to healthcare regardless of gender, race, religion, creed or political affiliation, and that people’s medical needs outweigh respect for national boundaries. MSF’s principles of action are described in our charter, which established a framework for our activities” (MSF …show more content…
No one should be declined health care because of their financial status, religion, political views, gender, or race. Being a part of Doctors Without Borders is as easy as donating money to their foundation, a few dollars can help provide meals to children, vaccinations, medical and sterilization kits, antibiotics, and medical supplies. If no monetary support can be provided organizing a fundraiser will also contribute to the MSF organization raising funds and awareness as well. It is only humane to help others when they are crying out for
An Imperfect Offering is a powerful personal memoir from a James Orbinski, a Canadian who has spent most of his adult life in front-line humanitarian work in the world's worst conflict zones. Despite its dark chapters, it is also a hopeful story about the emergence of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as a new and independent agent of civil society, and the possibilities of making the world a better place. In “An Imperfect Offering”, James Orbinski tells the story of people who have been harmed by war, and humanitarian workers who have come to heal them when possible. He engages in deep reflection on the nature of humanitarian response and the many threats to this most human activity. He has sharp criticism for governments who act to cause suffering or to prevent its relief. He asks, “How am I able to be in relation to the suffering of others?” His life as a doctor, and a humanitarian worker illustrates this answer. Accordingly, the books main thesis is that humanitarianism is about the struggle to create space to be fully human. However, he illustrates how this struggle is becoming increasingly difficult with the imperfect offering of politics, which has resulted in the blurring of boundaries between humanitarian assistance and the political objectives of military intervention.
Having been born and raised in a third world country, I can say with certainty that I have experienced the ravaging effect of poverty and lack of health care providers. I still
A major complaint of many against public health insurance for illegal immigrants is emergency Medicaid. Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1986, hospitals must provide emergency, life-saving service to those who come in regardless of citizenship status or money. If the patient does not have insurance or money to pay for medical treatment and they fulfill all of the requirements of Medicaid except citizenship, the government will pay for their healthcare (“Em...
There are many areas of the world where the most basic needs like clean drinking water, proper sanitation and medical care are just not available. When disaster strikes, the people living in these already disadvantaged areas are thrust into situations where death is almost always imminent. Reach Out WorldWide (“ROWW”) was started by a group of 6 men in California. They flew to Haiti and volunteered to help in whatever way they could after a massive earthquake devastated the country on January 12, 2010. While working in Haiti as medical aid volunteers, the group recognized the need for skilled people, supplies and urgency for a faster response when natural disasters strike.
While maintaining environmental awareness, Medshare truly strives to provide healthcare to developing communities in need around the world. In addition to providing tools and equipment, Medshare strives to educate and send Medical Mission Teams to the countries that they work with in order to maintain consistent medical care for the people of that region. Alone, knowing that the work that we were doing held true significance behind the health of an individual I will never meet was incredible. The experience of working at Medshare was quite humbling, I am currently less than an hour away from the nearest hospital and have access to immediate care when necessary whereas the people that Medshare serves have limited if any access to medical assistance. As cliche as it may sound, I often overlook how fortunate I am to have access to educated healthcare professionals within the United States. Volunteering at Medshare simply furthered my longing to work in the medical field, while also opening my eyes to the work that I could potentially do internationally. Although the work that we did seemed so insignificant, but the impact that it will have on others lives is quite
I believe that every citizen deserves good healthcare services regardless of his or her geographical area, income, or race. An underserved community is a community in which people are unable to obtain health care or have limited access to the health care system for different of reasons. These reasons include ethnic background, socioeconomic variables, lower salary in some areas, extreme weather, or other life circumstances that produces an uneven distribution of healthcare resources, including nurses. The individuals in underserved communities lack affordable comprehensive health insurance, have gaps in insurance, or are living in remote areas and unable to access care. Additionally, the lack of basic necessities such as money for food, medications,
Health care should be a human right. It shouldn’t be a privilege that individuals have to pay for, it should be provided to everyone. In 2017 Bernie Sanders said, “Every man, woman and child in our country should be able to access the health care they need regardless of
The American Red cross was established to provide humanitarian relief and disaster relief to wars, American Soldiers, and victims affected by natural disaster. Some of the first relief efforts the American Red Cross coordinated were the 1889 Johnstown Flood and the Galveston Flood of 1900. During the first World War a Home Service program was established to give assistance to families of military personnel. Approximately 22,800 (18,000 were general field nurses 4,800 were ambulance drivers) American Red Cross nurses provided medical assistance for American soldiers during World War 1. Many nurses lost their lives during the war, 296 nurses and 127 ambulance drivers to be exact.
It is important to know how the Red Cross began. It was in June 1859 when Henry Dunant went to Solferino, north of Italy. He was a spectator of a small but bloody war. French and Italians had a battle against Austrians. There were more or less 40,000 victims. He was completely horrified with the scene. He interrupted his trip to help the hurt and organized volunteers to save lives.
Throughout the world, in countries rich and poor, people have no access to basic physical and mental healthcare nor to immunizations from infectious disease. Some people have no access because they lack the resources to buy and the state does not provide it. Others may be able to afford healthcare but because there are no services available in their communities they must do without it.
Founded in 1984 by Dr. Robert Simon, International Medical Corps is a global, non-secular, not for profit, humanitarian organization based out of Santa Monica, California. A signatory of the Code of Conduct of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, IMC operates according to the principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and operational independence. In accordance with the principle of humanity, IMC has pledged to address human suffering wherever it may be found, to protect the life, health and respect of humans beings; neutrality means that the organization does not take side or take part in political, racial, religious or ideological conflict. The concept of impartiality guides the International Medical Corps to distribute aid on the basis of need alone, prioritizing the most urgent cases with a disregard for nationality, race, gender, religious belief, class or political viewpoint. Their operational independence allows the IMC to work completely independently from the political, economic, military or any other object that donors may have, making the IMC a dunantist organization. The mission of the International Medical Corp “is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide.” IMC operates with the intention of rehabilitating “devastated health care systems [to help] bring them back to self-reliance.”
First, when a patient attends to a medical service center, professionals do not need to discriminate him/her on any basis, may it be race, color, sex etc. on offering their services. The patients should gain admission for treatment even if they have any disabilities or from a different culture. We all know, patients need good doctors who make the health of their patients their first priority. Therefore, the patient’s treatment should be in accordance to their individual needs promoting dignity and their self-respect (Washington State Legislature, 2014). In case of payments, medical practitioners should inform the patients on the fees they are charged and the accepted form of payment, for example, patients should not be discriminated based on their credit worthiness. The patients too should not be discriminated against access to insurance transactions to pay for their bills (Washington State Legislatu...
UNICEF, United Nations Children’s Fund, is a nonprofit organization, founded by the United Nations General Assembly in 1946 in New York. Initially, UNICEF was created to provide temporary emergency help like medications, nutrition and clothes to children in the destroyed after World War 2 countries. In 1953 UNICEF became a permanent organization which has been supported by voluntary contributions and donations. Today UNICEF operates in 190 countries all over the world, saving and improving children’s lives and protecting their rights. It also provides healthcare, immunizations, food, education and emergency relief. “The number of children dying every day from all preventable causes has declined to about 19,000, down from 33,000 in 1991. At the U.S. Fund for UNICEF we won’t stop at “fewe...
In a perfect world all patients would receive the same level of healthcare and they would all be treated equally based on their illness. Although, living in a capitalist society not everything is meant to be equal. Our country was founded by settlers looking to escape from punitive taxation and were looking to be free from all other countries and start a new country. The United States is known as the place for people to chase the American Dream, where you work hard and the fruits of your labor can potentially payoff, overwhelmingly in some cases. However, not everyone can or will realize their American Dream since space is limited at the top. The richest Americans are able to enjoy larger homes, nicer cars, and lavish vacations. These are material items, but there is something else that they are able to buy that is not material, that is the right to life. The best healthcare can be viewed as subjective, but having more money you can buy almost anything, including the best care and options that people with less resources cannot. Therefore, people at all income levels experience different levels of healthcare. Many Americans are given access to healthcare, including those living in poverty, but that does not mean they receive the best or equal care as those who are wealthy, which is unethical.
Preventing diseases is every countries’ responsibility, whether they are poor or rich. Poor countries lack the knowledge and the money to gain, and expand medical resources. Therefore, many people are not been able to be cured. For wealthy countries, diseases are mutating at incredible speeds. Patients are dying because drug companies do not have enough data to produce vaccines to cure patients. When developed countries help poor countries to cure their people, the developed countries could help underdeveloped countries. Since developed countries can provide greater medical resources to poor countries, people living in the poor countries could be cured. As for the developed countries, they can collect samples from the patients so that the drug companies can produce new vaccines for new diseases. When trying to cure diseases, developed countries and poor countries would have mu...