Winter Newsletter - 2021

medicine for the world Our mission: To provide medicines and health supplies to those in need around the world so they might experience life to the fullest.

Winter 2021 | Volume 51

Your help means we’ll help even more in

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Together, MAP’s lifesaving medicines and health supplies will reach even more people in 2021!

As we embark upon 2021, MAP International has a plan to expand our global reach through critical programs like our Maternal and Child Health, Chronic Disease, Medical Mission and Pediatric Antibiotics.

In this newsletter, we highlight several of those key initiatives along with firsthand accounts from health

professionals so that you may read in their own words how the generosity of MAP supporters touches the lives of so many.

With your help and God’s grace, this year MAP will bring more health and hope in Jesus’ name to those who would otherwise be forgotten.

INSIDE: Improving Maternal and Child Health Saving lives with Pediatric Antibiotics Supporting Medical Mission Teams in a changed world Expanding the Chronic Disease Program

FOCUS: IMPROVING MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH Many women in the developing world don’t have access to prenatal vitamins or nutritional foods for themselves and their babies. Anemia and malnutrition in pregnancy increases the risk of birth complications for mothers and their children as well as impacts cognitive and physical development for infants.

In 2021, MAP aims to provide over one million bottles of prenatal vitamins for mothers like Sophia Remy and her son Yahve.

Sophia Remy had been waiting for quite some time to bring her 11-month-old son Yahve to the clinic in Les Cayes, Haiti. The clinic, run by Hope for Haiti, offers a children’s nutrition program that Sophia wanted to participate in, but she and Yahve had been waitlisted for several months before they could join.

the supplements and medications that they receive are invaluable to their families.

Prenatal vitamins are key to improving maternal and child health.

Hope for Haiti’s children’s nutrition program is through a partnership with Opportunity International, who provides a monthly nutritional supplement powder for each child.

Many children in the program also benefit from pediatric medications provided by MAP International.

Children like Yahve who participate in the program often come from economically vulnerable areas, and

During his first visit, Yahve was able to see a pediatrician in addition to having a nutritional consult, because he had been experiencing a fever for three days. His mother had noticed boils on his head. Dr. Coriolan at the clinic diagnosed Yahve with furunculosis (a deep infection of a hair follicle).

Thanks to MAP International’s partnership with Hope for Haiti, Sophia not only received the medications that her son needed, but she also received a package of personal hygiene wipes. Sophia is grateful for the quality services that her son received that day and encourages Hope for Haiti and their ministry partners to continue the work to save more lives.

FOCUS: SAVING LIVES WITH PEDIATRIC ANTIBIOTICS In 2021, MAP aims to increase our Pediatric Antibiotics program footprint and impact in Africa and Latin America to provide more than 250,000 pediatric antibiotic treatments to children in hard-toreach areas.

Dr. Mohamed Abdihalim, a neuroradiologist in St. Paul, Minnesota, has a heart for the people of Somalia and for serving those who have little access to necessary medical resources. He runs Somali Medical Relief, a charity that provides affordable medical imaging services in Bosaso, Somalia.

For the past three years, Dr. Abdihalim has been leading medical mission teams to work with the Bosaso General Hospital, the city’s main public hospital.

One of the patients that benefited from that trip was little Ali, an 8-month-old boy who was diagnosed with pneumonia. His family traveled from a neighboring village to get him the care that he needed. When they arrived, the doctors were able to treat him with antibiotics that were brought by Dr. Abdihalim from MAP International. His family was very grateful that he was able to receive the care that he needed.

According to the World Health Organization, pneumonia is the single largest cause of death in children worldwide. Thank you for giving to MAP and giving a future back to children like Ali.

Ali received lifesaving antibiotics for his pneumonia.

FOCUS: SUPPORTING MEDICAL MISSION TEAMS IN A CHANGED WORLD In 2020, in the face of travel restrictions and closed borders, lost jobs and funding, health protection and risk management, MAP has seen a decrease in the number of Medical Mission Teams that have been able to travel to the field. In response, MAP has expanded support for incountry medical mission teams, including mobile clinics and local community health clinics to ensure that no patient falls through the gap during this pandemic.

In 2021, MAP is working to increase our medical mission team footprint and reach more people.

Dr. Jerry Lauria has been helping lead a medical team to the coastal farming village of Los Naranjos, El Salvador. The team sees an average of 400 people during four days of clinic time, offering reading glasses, doing blood pressure screenings, and treating conditions such as pneumonia, malnutrition, and fungal skin infections.

The team has used MAP medicines since the very beginning, carrying with them antibiotics, skin

ointments, vitamins, supplements, and cough and cold medicines.

“MAP has never hesitated to go out of their way to help us,” says Dr. Lauria.

Eight years ago, the team met Edwin, now 22, who stole their hearts and has since become a friend. Edwin has a terrible condition called arthrogryposis, which causes his muscles to fail.

Thankfully, his lungs have been functioning well so far, and his skin is still healthy (this is unusual for many arthrogryposis patients).

Edwin has amazing parents, but it is his sister Elizabeth and her husband who primarily care for him.

The team leaves them with an ample supply of antibiotics from MAP to cover any respiratory infections that Edwin may get during the year, as well as plenty of ointments to keep his skin healthy.

Samantha Jemiolo, a nurse practitioner and another devoted member of the medical team, has also been strongly impacted by Edwin’s story.

Edwin and his sister Elizabeth

“The way his community rallies to care for him, support him, and meet his needs is astounding and honestly, tear provoking,” Jemiolo says.

For Dr. Lauria and his team, their yearly trip to Los Naranjos has come to be about more than medicine – it’s about relationships.

The team says it is an honor to visit each year, pray for Edwin and his family, and encourage them. MAP International is honored to play even a small part in supporting Edwin and his family as they inspire their town and the world.

FOCUS: EXPANDING THE CHRONIC DISEASE PROGRAM Chronic diseases — like high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and cardiovascular disease to name just a few — account for nearly 75% of all deaths worldwide.

In 2021 MAP’s Chronic Disease Program goal is to increase chronic disease medications provided globally by 25%.

prescriptions but can’t afford to pay. That’s why MAP International has partnered with Ethne.

Says Dr. Andrew Kim, one of the clinic’s founders, “The MAP medicines have been essential for our uninsured patients. Many of these patients have difficulty not just paying for medications, but also difficulty getting to a pharmacy to purchase the medications.

Clarkston, Georgia is often referred to as “the most diverse square mile in America” and “the Ellis Island of the South.”

Dr. Esther Kim, co founder of the clinic

Ironically, it is less than 20 miles from Atlanta, one of the world centers of medical care and innovation.

patients with HIV and other chronic diseases, the small clinic is constantly busy.

With services ranging from pediatrics to gynecology and specialties such as caring for

One of the biggest needs of the clinic is providing medicine to those who need to fill

When we are able to dispense these often lifesaving medications, another barrier is removed in the process of getting well. It’s hard to overstate the importance of these medications and the incredible differences we’ve seen in patients’ lives already!”

Meet Candace Rowell, MAP’s Senior Program Manager As MAP’s Senior Program Manager, Candace Rowell leads MAP’s programs in the US and abroad.

She heads MAP’s data and feedback initiative. “We want to make sure that the work we’re doing in the field gets translated back to the people who are helping support that work,” Candace explains.

Answering the overwhelming demand for pediatric antibiotics MAP developed the Bringing Children Health (BCH) program in response to the overwhelming need for pediatric antibiotics across the world. In so many underdeveloped countries, children are dying from preventable infections, with pneumonia being the leading

cause of death in children under the age of five. The BCH program provides pediatric antibiotics to MAP’s partners at no cost to them or the people they serve.

The BCH program launched in 2018 in one country, with one partner, serving five clinics. They served 5,000 children that first year. Since then, the growth has been strategic and astounding.

This past fiscal year, the BCH program served 50,000 children in 47 countries.

Expanding the Chronic Disease Program Providing a consistent supply of medications for the treatment of chronic diseases like asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol is the primary goal of MAP’s Chronic

Disease Program. MAP’s delivery of these medications is based on the needs of the clinics, not necessarily the amount of donations MAP receives.

“Whether we get the products donated or not, we are committed to making sure these clinics get what they need,” Candace says.

“We don’t want patients to have gaps in their care.”

Candace’s message to donors and supporters of MAP International is a call to responsive compassion.

“We have all been devastated

by COVID-19,” she says. “We’ve been devastated as a nation, economically and personally. It is hard to begin to imagine the impact of COVID-19 on health systems that were already broken.”

As much as we all are feeling the suffering, Candace says we can’t forget about the suffering of others abroad. MAP International is positioned in 2021 to meet the increase in need to make sure no one falls between the gap.

MAP International | 4700 Glynco Parkway | Brunswick, GA 31525 1.800.225.8550 | map.org

With your help, we served a record

20 million people in

2020 That’s up from 13 million in 2019. And as we enter 2021, we plan to go further than ever before to “serve the servants” and all those who would go without — without medicines and without hope — if it weren’t for MAP and the generosity of people like you.

In our Winter 2021 Newsletter, we shared some of these exciting plans with you. A vision that will shape the future for years to come for millions of children, seniors, families and communities across the globe.

We hope you’ve been inspired by what you read. Please know that a gift of any amount will continue to help get critically needed medicines and health supplies to those who need them most in 2021.

Give today!