Infrastructure Support
Project HOPE
Project HOPE has been delivering donated medicines, supplies and equipment to some of the world’s most impoverished communities. This distribution system is vital to the health of millions. Project HOPE also enables communities around the world to provide health care for their own people over the long term. Examples of these community efforts include HOPE’s programs to improve the lives of women and children around the world by addressing a wide range of needs including training health care workers in local clinics, teaching mothers how to recognize, treat and prevent illnesses in their children and providing means to be economically empowered. In 2006, donations from Bristol-Myers Squibb to assist Project HOPE's worldwide efforts totaled approximately $4.8 million.
Here are some examples of how the Foundation’s product donations are making a difference in Project HOPE’s work around the world:
Village Health Banks
More than 1,000 Village Health Banks (VHBs) have given hope to women in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Malawi, Mozambique and Thailand, several of which are supported with Bristol-Myers Squibb products.
The VHB is an innovative program that combines health education with microfinance lending to women in poor communities and has resulted in well-documented increases in both family income and personal health knowledge. More than 50,000 women have received over $25 million in loans from these programs in these seven countries. The model has recently been expanded to target other vulnerable populations, including people and communities heavily impacted by HIV/AIDS.
Typically, 15-25 interested women from the selected community form a Village Health Bank and are given access to small loans of about $100 for each woman. These loans are meant to enable them to start or enhance existing small businesses through agriculture, sale of goods and services and other activities to generate income. These women are also offered technical advice in financial management and health education sessions based on local needs.
Over the course of four months, the loans are repaid and the women are eligible to receive additional, larger loans. After one year of participation, families report an average income growth of 15%-40% with similar improvements in quality of life indicators, increased spending on food and health care and a greater contribution towards household economic resources.
The educational components stress both the importance of being informed about health issues and the importance of taking personal responsibility to address health matters. Participants learn how to use their increased income to raise their family out of poverty and to prevent illness and disease by providing basic nutritional foods and medicines.
Each VHB also promotes better health in their local community through outreach activities like health fairs to address topics such as proper nutrition, disease prevention, infant health, maternal issues and HIV/AIDS. As the members succeed, the VHB becomes a catalyst for improved community health by creating a pool of empowered women who advocate and exemplify better health practices.
These self-sustaining programs proved to be successful strategies in impacting both poverty and health in developing countries through the unique approach of improving health, income and empowerment.
Jinotega, Nicaragua
Project HOPE’s program seeks to strengthen the institutional capacity of the local health providers to deliver higher quality services in areas such as perinatal and infant care, family planning, nutrition, management of acute respiratory infections, immunization programs and personal hygiene.
Jinotega, with a population of 306,000 inhabitants, is located in a rugged, rural area where poverty is widespread and employment opportunities are rare. The majority of the population is found in the rural area, where access to health services is very difficult due to the lack of or very poor roads. Some of the municipalities are accessible only by way of the river. Poor nutrition and sanitation are constant threats to community health. Most inhabitants work seasonally on small coffee or oil palm plantations. Project HOPE works with several large coffee growers to provide better health care to their workers, both permanent and temporary, during harvest season.
Together with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Project HOPE extends its commitment to these communities, providing product and educational outreach to those disproportionately affected by serious diseases and health conditions. Through the donations of antibiotics and vitamins for these area children, it is able to prevent infections and malnutrition that inhibit growth and learning. A recent HOPE shipment impacted 2,400 local children who would have otherwise gone untreated.
Tajikistan/Uzbekistan Central Asia Humanitarian Assistance Program
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s products support HOPE’s humanitarian efforts in the Central Asian countries of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, two of the poorest republics of the former Soviet Union. These countries do not have the resources to address all the health care needs of their people and, therefore, rely on donations to supplement their meager supply of medicines.
Project HOPE has been working in Tajikistan since 1993 and has delivered almost $100 million worth of medicines to that country. With a population of 6 million, the official poverty level encompasses almost 80% of the population. Project HOPE currently has a full-time program funded by the U.S. State Department. The purpose of the program is to alleviate the severe shortage of basic medicines and medical supplies. The program focuses on the capital of Dushanbe, the southern region of Khatlon, and the far northern province of Khojand. In 2002, Project HOPE supported 20 hospitals; today they support more than 107 hospitals throughout the country.
Project HOPE uses Bristol-Myers Squibb medicines to address basic health care problems and to help alleviate the severe shortage of medicines caused by the area’s extreme poverty. All products are coordinated with the Ministry of Health and HOPE staff supervises delivery and distribution. Project HOPE also operates a "healthy families" program in the Afghan border regions of Surkhandary and Kashkadarya.
AmeriCaresHeadquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, AmeriCares has been working to improve healthcare around the world since 1982. Approximately 70 percent of the work AmeriCares does focuses on addressing long-term healthcare, while 30 percent is concentrated on providing disaster relief to victims of natural disaster, famine and civil unrest. Over the last 20 years, AmeriCares has responded to requests for assistance in approximately 137 nations, including the United States, and currently supports programs in 50 countries on a sustained basis. AmeriCares has delivered over $4 billion in medicine and other supplies during this time. Bristol-Myers Squibb medicines have been used in many of AmeriCares’ programs with approximately $1.5 million worth (wholesale value) distributed in 2006.
One program supported by Bristol-Myers Squibb medicines is the "Cefzil para Mexico" program. This program continues to provide immeasurable relief to patients suffering from respiratory infections caused by the area’s high pollution rates. Children and young adults are particularly vulnerable to these infections and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s antibiotics have made a significant impact in treating these affected populations. This medicine has allowed AmeriCares to offer continuous support to four institutions primarily in Mexico City and the Guadalajara region through a respiratory disease program that serves the poor and citizens without social security.
In addition, Bristol-Myers Squibb has helped support a diabetes program in Hospital San Felipe in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. It serves as the only advanced health care facilities for the neediest populations in the country. Recently, the hospital opened a National Diabetes Center to provide services to more than 2,700 diabetes patients in the area.
Bristol-Myers Squibb has also partnered with AmeriCares in their disaster relief and humanitarian operations. By pre-positioning products in AmeriCares’ warehouses, Bristol-Myers Squibb is able to respond quickly and appropriately following natural disasters. Close to $500,000 worth of Bristol-Myers Squibb medicines arrived in Pakistan in response to the devastating earthquake in late 2005. Tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia were also supported.
Catholic Medical Mission BoardAs a leader in international healthcare, Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) is the only U.S.-based Catholic-sponsored charitable organization focused on improving access to quality healthcare in the developing world. In the last five years, CMMB’s programs have focused on improving access to quality healthcare in the developing world by providing nearly $300 million in healthcare assistance to needy people in 75 countries. Since its founding in 1928, CMMB has been committed to providing basic medicines, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies without discrimination to those in need.
In 2006, Bristol-Myers Squibb product donations were valued at approximately $14.8 million wholesale. Examples of CMMB programs supported by Bristol-Myers Squibb and utilizing its medicine donations include:
Direct Relief InternationalAmerican Nicaraguan Foundation (ANF)
Nearly 800,000 Nicaraguans (one out of six) do not have access to healthcare and many that do face centers too poorly equipped to effectively serve their communities. CMMB works with the ANF to improve access to and the quality of healthcare available to the poorest Nicaraguans. The program focuses on improving community-based organizations' capacity to provide acute health care by supplying them with basic medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and supplies. At the same time, the program includes a comprehensive educational campaign on the prevention of dengue, malaria, and diarrhea, which is helping to reduce the number of people affected by these deadly illnesses each year. CMMB donations are distributed by ANF to over 120 health centers, dispensaries and hospitals throughout the country that provide quality medical care to over 7,200 people a day. CMMB and ANF worked to address widespread malnutrition with support from Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Mead Johnson Nutritionals. CMMB donated 8.6 million bottles of nutritional shakes, valued at over $811,000, to service ANF’s program, Nourishing Our Community. The program feeds over 65,000 people per day through a nationwide effort to provide food to 183 nutrition centers. It focuses on schools and youth centers reaching children -- the most vulnerable victims of malnutrition. The program has successfully increased retention and enrollment rates at schools as well as increased scholastic achievement.
Haitian Health Foundation
The Haitian Health Foundation is a volunteer, grass-roots organization started as an outreach for the needy population in Jeremie, Haiti. Called the Haitian Partnership, medical professionals dedicate their skills and knowledge in aid of the poorest of the poor. Their aspirations include sharing skills and knowledge to aid the poorest of the poor and a Medical Mission where the town and outlying villages can seek treatment. The Haitian Health Foundation provides outpatient medical care where patients receive eye treatment, pediatric care, nutritional training, pre and post-natal care as well as dental care. Self-help agricultural programs and tuition for education are also provided.
J.C. Hispaniola Fund
The J.C. Hispaniola Fund was founded after Hurricane George in October 1998. Today the needs remain great and the Fund continues to provide healthcare assistance. Members of the organization travel to the island to oversee the distribution of the aid. The cities and towns that benefit from this fund include the Dominican cities of Santo Domingo, San Pedro de Macoris, the southern and western part of the country and the region of Cibao. The Haitian areas benefiting include the town of Jacmel, its surrounding localities of Marigot and Les Cayes and the rural town of Caesse.
Home-Reach Foundation
Home-Reach consists of a group of volunteer medical personnel who travel overseas on frequent medical mission trips. Their main project, and also the largest, is the Balik Bohol Medical Mission in the Philippines. The missions encompass numerous towns in the province of Bohol. Teams have seen over 69,000 patients in clinics and surgery during eight medical missions and have provided medicines and supplies to hospitals and doctors so healthcare attention in the area can continue. Donations are shipped prior to a mission trip and are distributed by the volunteers. In addition, supplies are also sent after mission trips to continue the treatment of patients in the hospital and clinics where the poorest are treated at no charge.
Direct Relief International responds to the medical needs of people living in poverty or affected by natural disasters, war, or civil unrest. Each year, pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, medical equipment, and nutritional supplements are provided wherever resources are limited and allow millions of people to receive care who otherwise would not. This aid also supports the efforts of the trained and committed health care providers and the indigenously run facilities that are essential to long-term improvement in health care around the world.
In the core area of medical material aid, Direct Relief furnished $190 million (wholesale) in aid, containing over 23.9 million courses of treatment for use by partner health facilities and organizations.
In 2006, Direct Relief furnished over $200 million in financial and material assistance to 56 countries worldwide.
During 2006, Bristol-Myers Squibb products valued at about $10.6 million helped support many of Direct Relief International’s long term health care programs, medical mission trips and disaster relief efforts, including the Indonesian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan earthquake. Additionally, Bristol-Myers Squibb products supported Hurricane Stan relief efforts in Guatemala and El Salvador.
The company has also supported efforts by Direct Relief International to bridge the gap in access to primary care in rural communities in developing countries. DRI has partnered with local 45 health organizations to provide basic medical needs to rural communities, icndluing primary care, disease prevention and health education. By providing key antibiotics, the organization seeks to help decrease health disparities among the disenfranchised rural communities being served.
The Medical Mission Box program has provided 300 boxes of medical supplies for U.S. physicians going on overseas medical missions to 50 countries.
Heart to Heart InternationalHeart to Heart International, a global humanitarian organization, mobilizes individuals to meet the needs of the poor in their communities and around the world by forming partnerships that promote health, alleviate hunger, and deliver resources, education and hope, and by providing opportunities for meaningful service. It assists local communities by increasing the accessibility and quality of healthcare in nearly 50 countries, including the United States.
Bristol-Myers Squibb products help support their annual "Physicians with Heart" humanitarian airlift to the former Soviet republics. This is a joint project between Heart to Heart International, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the AAFP Foundation and the U.S. State Department. Cardiovascular conditions, pneumonia, tuberculosis, diabetes and a variety of cancers are primary medical concerns. Essential pharmaceuticals and medical supplies used to treat common illnesses are in short supply, if available at all.
The airlift project is designed to bring medicines and other supplies donated by U.S. companies to clinics and hospitals in the former Soviet republics, mobilize these resources to improve health, provide medical education for local physicians through a train-the-trainer model and foster the development of family practice worldwide. Bristol-Myers Squibb also provides funding for the Pharmaceutical Reference Manual, a valuable resource of translated medical information that is included in the project.
A delegation of volunteers, many of them family physician volunteers, travel with these airlifts to verify delivery of donated supplies, provide education about family practice for country physicians and participate in projects that help local orphanages and schools.
The company also supports a water sanitation and hygiene education project in Solola, Guatemala, in order to increase access to safe water supplies and adequate sanitation facilities. The Pan-American Health Organization estimates that 3.7 Guatemalan citizens lack access to potable water and nearly 4.2 million do not have adequate sanitation facilities. In addition, acute diarrheal diseases are the second leading cause of death among children under the age of one. In Solola, Atitlan Lake is the primary water resource for surrounding communities. However it is increasingly being used as a disposal site for human and agricultural waste. Over a three year period, this program will target populations in the area, including schools, through the provision of appropriate water treatment technologies, sanitation improvements and hygiene education.
Interchurch Medical Assistance (IMA)For 45 years Interchurch Medical Assistance (IMA) has been serving people in need of better healthcare. IMA specializes in providing responsible medical donations to developing countries and areas devastated by natural disasters. IMA has provided medical products to almost 75 different countries throughout the world.
In 2006, over $1.14 million worth of products were donated by Bristol-Myers Squibb to IMA in support of their Medicine Box® Program.
Children in the developing world die from diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria that can be successfully and easily treated. Through its Medicine Box® Program, IMA supplies overseas hospitals and community health centers with essential medicines that treat and protect children and adults from potentially life-threatening diseases. Trained health workers value antibiotics donated by Bristol-Myers Squibb to treat children for acute respiratory and other illnesses, helping to reduce the mortality rate of children under five years in the poorest countries of the world.
In addition to being used in hospitals and community health centers in developing countries, Medicine Boxes® are also hand carried by volunteer health professional teams that treat entire village populations in remote areas and in disaster relief situations.
Each Medicine Box® contains 18 essential products to treat common illnesses of approximately 1,000 adults and children for 2-3 months. IMA supplies approximately 1,000 Medicine Boxes® each year, providing basic health care for an estimated one million adults and children worldwide. Support from Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2007 provided enough products for the basic health care needs of about 10,000 people.
A grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb is being used to provide access to treatment for children affected by Burkitt’s lymphoma, a cancer affecting children in malaria endemic regions. This fast growing tumor affects the face, abdomen or central nervous system and if left untreated, is fatal. The IMA has been working in Tanzania since 2000 to help those affected, in part by developing guidelines and training materials for health care personnel to better diagnose and treat these children.
MAP InternationalMAP (Medical Assistance Programs) International promotes the total health of impoverished people in over 115 countries through the provision of essential medicines, promotion of community health and prevention and eradication of disease. MAP is well known for its provision of high—quality FDA approved essential medicines to health workers, hospitals, clinics, dispensaries and relief centers. In 2006, an estimated 25 million people were potential beneficiaries of MAP International’s work in the developing world.
MAP International envisions a world in which individuals, families and communities have the hope and capacity to build conditions that promote Total Health through the identification, training and equipping community leaders as a primary tool for improving health. Its mission is to promote the health of people living in the world’s poorest communities by partnering in the provision of essential medicines, prevention and eradication of disease and the promotion of community health development.
Recently, TIME magazine recognized MAP and one of its key leaders as a Global Health Hero for their work among faith communities in preventing HIV and AIDS in Africa. To help build sustainable healthy communities, MAP International works with community leaders in countries to promote community health development.
MAP identifies candidates to become "community health promoters" and trains these leaders to effect change within their community. To maximize the number of lives reached, MAP International works in partnership programs with over 300 organizations, agencies and medical missions around the world. MAP International supplies clinics and hospitals in impoverished communities in developing countries where access is limited with more then $230 million in essential medicines and supplies each year.
Bristol-Myers Squibb provided MAP International with life saving products valued in excess of $7 million in 2005 and 2006. Among the programs supported by Bristol-Myers Squibb was the MAP Travel Pack. The MAP Travel Pack is carried by over 800 US-based health professionals on short-term medical missions to developing countries.
Volunteer physicians report that a single pack can provide up to 700 treatments and is well-suited to the common needs of patients they serve. MAP has shipped over 17,000 packs since the program’s inception in 1993. In 2006, over 1,500 Travel Packs were delivered to over 80 countries.
Besides its work in providing essential medicines and medical supplies, MAP works with selected program partners to save lives and reduce human suffering in emergency relief. With the help of Bristol-Myers Squibb, MAP came to the aid of people affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Bristol-Myers Squibb and MAP also teamed up to save lives following the devastating tsunami in South Asia.
For example, in Chilimarca, Bolivia, support from Bristol-Myer Squibb helped MAP expand its Family Health Guardian program to include 500 men, women and children learning and then promoting in their own homes and communities health and disease prevention, nutrition, self-esteem and gender issues, conflict resolution and animal husbandry.
Medical Teams InternationalMedical Teams International is a non-profit humanitarian aid organization whose goals include improving health care and promoting economic development opportunities. Focused programs include community health and development, child survival, HIV/AIDS prevention, dental health, humanitarian, disaster relief and emergency medical training. Bristol-Myers Squibb products have supported a number of these programs including an Emergency Medical Services training of trainers programs and to help provide primary health care services in response to natural and man-made disasters.
With the assistance of volunteers, in 2005-2006 the organization has shipped more than $103 million in medicines and supplies through 240 recipient partners in more than 100 countries.
Medical Teams International has utilized more than 1,600 volunteer teams since 1979. More than 80,000 volunteer hours have been given annually and approximately 3.2 million people were helped in 2005.
During 2005, Bristol-Myers Squibb provided products valued (at wholesale) at over $15 million to support Medical Teams International programs in Latin America, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, Africa and to provide disaster relief in South Asia after the tsunami and in the U.S. after Hurricane Katrina.
International AidFounded in 1980, International Aid (IA) is a relief and development agency that provides and supports solutions in healthcare. It is committed to improving global health care by making quality health services available to the world’s poor. For the past five years, it has leveraged the impact of a worldwide network of ministry partners in countries with unmet health needs. It does so by bridging three components of health delivery systems: community health, clinical care, and technology, integrating them as mutually supportive approaches to health care in the developing world. IA's Medical Equipment Services department supplies refurbished equipment to those in need worldwide. IA's Medical Equipment Training program teaches bio-medical repair skills to nationals in developing countries. Lab-in-a-Suitcase, is a portable, compact and inexpensive laboratory kit for diagnostic work in remote locations. Other IA programs include Emergency/Disaster Relief, Christian Eye Ministry, Hospital Management and Support Services, The Mission Resource Center and Partner Services. It provides funding for aid shipments, enabling mission organizations working in more than 55 countries to carry out their ministries of hope and restoration. Donations of products, cash, and volunteer assistance make IA's work possible. In 2006, IA delivered vital, health-related aid to people in 168 countries worldwide with $3.6 million in cash contributions and gifts-in-kind valued at $47 million to areas devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In addition, our volunteers donated 80,000 hours of service an economic value of $1.4 million. In, 2007, Bristol-Myers Squibb provided support for a safe water initiative in the coffee-growing region of Honduras. IA is distributing a point of use filtration device that helps individual households provide clean water to reduce diarrheal disease and save lives. Approximately 11,000 HydrAID BioSand Water Filters are being distributing to give 55,000 people in rural areas of the country access to safe drinking water as part of ongoing, community-based healthcare programs in the region.