What We Do
MAP International is a Christ-centered global health organization guided by a vision of a world where all people have access to the medicines and care they need. MAP works through strategic partnerships to deliver hope, and healing to vulnerable communities around the world.
Mission
To provide medicine and health supplies to people in need around the world so they might experience life to the fullest.
Vision
We envision a world where everyone, regardless of where they live, has access to basic life-saving and life-transforming medicine.
Our Story. Our Calling.
Mission hospitals and clinics all over the world lacked the resources they needed to treat their patients. While missionary doctors did their best with what they had, the medicine and health supplies they knew were available in the U.S. were nearly impossible to find in remote parts of the world.
An administrator at the Christian Medical Society, Ray Knighton, heard about this deep need on the mission field, and began talking about it to anyone who would listen. One fateful day in 1954, Art Larson of the Schering Drug Co. called Ray and told him he had shipped 11 tons of medicine to Ray’s office in Chicago. In shock, Ray gasped and said, “You did what?”
Despite having no warehouse and only a small office, Knighton and his secretary distributed every single box of medicine to doctors serving abroad within just three months.
This act of generosity and kindness marked the beginning of MAP’s humble roots.
MAP Founder, Ray Knighton
MAP Timeline
A truckload of medicine is dropped off at the Christian Medical Society’s office in Chicago. Ray Knighton and his assistant orchestrate the delivery of 11 tons of medicine to mission doctors traveling from the United States to serve people in countries around the world.
The Christian Medical Society board votes to spin off its “Medical Assistance Programs” and MAP is founded as a separate 501c3 organization focused on delivering medicines and health supplies to people in need.
DeWitt Wallace, the founder of The Reader’s Digest, donates $1 million to fund the Reader’s Digest International Fellowship, a program to support medical students serving in high needs areas overseas.
MAP partners with the Billy Graham Association to provide disaster relief for hundreds of thousands of people injured when a devastating earthquake strikes Guatemala.
To improve its operational efficiency and access to ocean ports, MAP relocates its Global Medicines Distribution Center from Wheaton, IL to Brunswick, GA.
MAP International launches its Medical Mission Pack program to serve short-term medical mission teams. Since its launch, more than 45,000 Medical Mission Packs have been sent with medical mission teams to help people globally.
More than 225,000 people perish when a tsunami strikes Indonesia. MAP provides more than $10 million in medicines and health supplies to help those injured in the devastation in Banda Ache, the Andaman Islands and Sri Lanka.
MAP provides more than $20 million in disaster aid following a devastating earthquake that leveled Port Au Prince, Haiti.
An outbreak of Ebola virus in Liberia captures global attention. MAP responds by sending 33,000 personal protective health suits and more than $18 million in medicines and health supplies.
COVID-19 pandemic hits and MAP responds to urgent requests for emergency aid. MAP warehouse continues operations throughout the pandemic.
New global distribution center opens in Brunswick, GA, doubling MAP’s capacity to store and ship medicine.
MAP reaches historic milestone, receiving and distributing a staggering $1.3 billion in donated medicine and health supplies.
“I was sick and you took care of me.”