Student: Rudie Wognin
Instructor: Brieanna Casey
May 4, 2014
Table of Contents
Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 3
History -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 4
Problems --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 4
Solutions --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 5
Needs, Limits and Resources --------------------------------------------------------------------Page 5
Benefits ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 6
Conclusion -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 7
References------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Page 8
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Introduction
The Medair foundation is a humanitarian, non-profit organization, inspired by
their Christian faith, with a group of eight dedicated volunteers led by Drs.
Erik and Josianne Volkmar. This organization’s goal is to relieve human
suffering in some of the most devastated places around the world (Medair).
Places where the Medair works
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History
Medair was created in 1989: its international and
operational headquarters are based in Switzerland,
Europe. “Medair has been active in 31 countries,
working in some of the most remote, hard-to-reach
places in the world.” (Medair: The First Five Years,
2009). The Medair had started operating since the year
1988 with three organizations as partners: Medicament
pour l’Afrique (MEDAF), Mission Aviation Fellowship
(MAF), and Youth with Mission (YWAM), and their first
intervention was in Uganda. The current CEO of Medair
Foundation is the Canadian Jim Ingram. All the funds
received by the Medair come from institutional and
private donations (Medair: Funding and Corporate
Partners).
Jim Ingram, CEO of Medair
Problems
Many countries around the world, especially in some part of Africa, the Middle
East area, and Asia suffer from many problems, such as natural disasters,
political crisis, and poverty. These people have faced deadly issues that
include health and nutrition, sanitation and infrastructure. Most of the
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problems that the Medair has encountered in the countries have been sanitary
problems, lack of water or water contamination during flood (Mission, Medair).
They have also faces political crisis, such as bombing, which compelled them
to evacuate, leaving the population they help in a desperate condition
(Medair: The Five First Years, 2009). They also encountered situations like
kidnapping (Swiss Info). Such situations also impede international volunteers
from going into those risky countries. However, despite the difficulties they
have faced they have also fought to find solutions to help the community in
need.
Solutions
Medair currently operates in 10 countries, which
includes Afghanistan, Chad, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Haiti, Madagascar, Philippines, Somalia, South
Sudan, Syria, and Zimbabwe. To help these countries,
they created a project called WASH, which means Water,
Sanitation, and Hygiene. This project has for main
goal to provide treated and clean water to the
population in order to eradicate the spread of
diseases (Medair: WASH Project). Other main concerns
of the Medair include shelter, it provided to the
population professional architects and engineers to
help them rebuild what was destroyed during war or
natural disasters (Medair Shelter Team). Regarding
Shelter in Haiti
the issue of nutrition in Chad, the Medair has
started a nutrition program for children in the
region of Ouaddaï where 5,924 children were admitted.
To address these issues, they provided shelter after
the natural disaster of Haiti, emergency food
services in south Sudan and Somalia and clean water
in Zimbabwe (Medair. The Medair works with the
Nutrition Program
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population by teaching them to be aware about their environmental situations
and how to take action on their own in future disasters. To the potential
volunteers interested to start a career in the organization, the Medair’s
staff offers a one week training called ROC: Relief and Recovery Orientation
Course.
Need, Limits, and Resources
As the Vice President of Medair, Torsten De Santo said: “To realize those
actions, the organization benefit from financial aid in one of their branches
called Medair Invest in Aid through bequest and donations from sensitive souls
who cannot help physically” said. This means that essential
Working in a non-profit organization can be difficult at times, because it
demands complete dedication and engagement from each member involved in the
organization. They have to get the work done on daily basis with or without
enough resources. This can be very frustrating for the employees (The case
Foundation).
The first resource of Medair foundation is funding from institutional partners
and also from private donations. It also has the support of other partners
including the UN, UNICEF, EuropeAid, and more that support Medair in its
mission by providing it help, such as food service to save children lives,
vaccination of the children less than 5 years old, and more (Medair: Funding
and Corporate Partners). All these partners help the Medair financially or by
sending it the necessary materials it needs during it missions.
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Expenses and Incomes 2012
Benefits
This organization benefits from five different affiliate offices located in
Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK, and the USA. Each affiliate office
possesses its own board of trustees, but they work together to fulfill their
goals.
The Medair also offers benefits to passionate local and international
volunteers, willing to help the less fortunate through those affiliate offices
in some countries. In return it benefits form 126 international and 633
national recruited staff (Medair 2012 Annual Report).
The population also has benefited from the Medair; exactly 916,724 people from
the 10 countries where the organization has operated have received all kind of
help from health and nutrition to shelters and Infrastructures (Medair 2012
Annual Report).
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All these help in finance and people are the one that allow this foundation
to still take action around the world.
Conclusion
The Medair Foundation provides relief to the most devastated areas and also
helps them recover with dignity from disasters that they have faced. Their
services are globally to help eradicate the spread of diseases, save the life
of children, provide shelters and good sanitary conditions to the population,
and diminish poverty. To make the mission more efficient, the Medair offers
training called the ROC: Relief & Recovery Orientation Course because they
will always need volunteers and people who want to make their career in an
organization like Medair. To show your dedication and your involvements go to
Medair website medair.org and click on get involved session, and then make
your choice.
References
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Medair International Organization
http://medair.org/
The case Foundation retrieved from
http://casefoundation.org/spotlight/careers/pros_cons
Medair: the Five First Years, published in October 2009 retrieved form
http://www.medair.org/nc/en/infochanel/news/detail/article/medair_the_first_five_years/
Swiss Info, Aid workers kidnapped in Afghanistan, May 2013 retrieved from
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/foreign_affairs/Aid_workers_kidnapped_in_Afghanistan.h
tml?mobileTopicId=29626400&view=mobileDetail&cid=32755230&ty=st
Medair Responds to Malnutrition in Horn of Africa
http://www.trust.org/item/20110712151300-muze2/?source=search
Funding and Corporate Partners retried from
http://relief.medair.org/en/about-us/partners/
Medair: WASH Project retrieved from
http://www.medair.org/en/what-we-do/sectors-of-expertise/water-sanitation-and-hygienewash/
Field Selection and Orientation retrieved from
http://relief.medair.org/en/jobs/field-selection-and-orientation/
Medair 2012 Annual Report retrieved from
http://relief.medair.org/assets/uploads/documents/A5_MEDAIR_AR2012_EN_LR_page
_by_page.pdf
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