Mission Follows Two-Month Mission in Tsunami Region
MILLWOOD, Va., April 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Project HOPE today announced that
it is sending 50 volunteers, including physicians and nurses, to Nias, an
island off the west coast of Sumatra, to provide medical care to the victims
of the most recent earthquake to hit the region. The volunteers will board
the USNS Mercy, which is steaming back to the region.
The relief effort, coordinated by Project HOPE, comes on the heels of a
recently completed two-month partnership with the U.S. Navy to provide medical
assistance to tsunami victims. In that mission, more than 200 Project HOPE
volunteers served with Navy personnel and helped provide assistance to more
than 20,000 Indonesians. Project HOPE also delivered more than $9 million in
humanitarian aid to hospitals, clinics and emergency centers in the region.
In the current mission, Project HOPE has recruited a team of medical
volunteers to provide emergency medical care to survivors of the earthquake in
south Asia.
"The first call the Navy made after hearing about this latest tragedy was
to Project HOPE," said John P. Howe III, M.D., President and CEO of Project
HOPE. "We were called upon for our organization's years of experience, and
our reputation for leadership and quick aid response in crisis situations."
The March 28 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia brought further
destruction to an already devastated region. The United Nations has estimated
that as many as 1,300 people may have died in the disaster.
Project HOPE has a history of disaster relief and shipboard assistance,
beginning in 1958 with the first peacetime hospital ship, the SS HOPE, donated
by President Eisenhower. Its maiden voyage was to Indonesia. Today, Project
HOPE conducts land-based medical training and health education programs in 34
countries across five continents. For more information about Project HOPE,
visit http://www.projecthope.org.
SOURCE Project HOPE
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Related links:
http://www.projecthope.org
CONTACT:
Jackie Donohue, +1-202-778-1022, for Project
HOPE
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