With fewer than 50 employees around the world, how does MAP distribute the life-changing medicines and health supplies to 104 countries? The answer? Our partners.

MAP works tirelessly with 26 partners providing medicines and health supplies around the globe.

On a recent trip to El Salvador, I met with one of MAP’s long-standing partners in the field, the Salvadorian American Humanitarian Foundation (SAHF) and their sister organization, FUSAL.

Combined, our partnership with SAHF supplies more than 500 hospitals, clinics, health centers, orphanages, nursing homes, schools, and other non-government agencies throughout the country with medicines and health supplies. Together we play a critical role in medical distribution in El Salvador where MAP shipped more than $27.5 million in medicines and health supplies in 2018.

What’s amazing is that this partnership starts with supporters like you. We could not get such a large supply of medicine to people in need without your support.

While I was in El Salvador, I had the opportunity to witness the ongoing needs and successes of our partnership. SAHF  had received a large shipment of medicines and health supplies from MAP just before my arrival. Working with FUSAL, they immediately began distribution to over 500 small community clinics and large national hospitals.

One of the highlights from my visit occurred at one of El Salvador’s oldest hospitals, Rosales National built in 1902. The hospital, located in the heart of San Salvador, treats approximately one-third of El Salvador’s population of 6.4 million people. That’s nearly 1.9 million patients on an annual basis. It is the most specialized hospital in the country and treats a myriad of medical conditions from general illness to oncology.

As you can imagine, when we arrived, the emergency room and waiting areas were teeming with people. People wait hours, if not days, to see a doctor. Due to the limited beds, patients wait in the halls, and family members often sleep on the floors while their loved one receives treatment.

The hospital’s limited resources are consistently stretched thin. Basic needs often go unmet, and cleanliness is limited leading to further exposure to infection. A doctor from Rosales National visited partner’s warehouse while I was there.

 “We’re grateful for the help!”, the doctor shared with me. “These products are in such short supply at the hospital’s pharmacy.”

Can you imagine if your local hospital ran out of medicine? This is a dangerous reality at times at Rosales.

Working with our partners around the world, MAP provides medicines and supplies when healthcare providers need them most. It is a vital safety net whether in El Salvador, or any of the 104 countries where we work. Simply put, partnerships are at the core of how we achieve MAP’s mission.

Working together, we faithfully serve people in need worldwide.

The young mother drew the blanket close to shade her baby. The sun burned down on Susanna and the hundreds of others waiting patiently in line, hoping to see a doctor. Born just weeks before in rural Honduras, her baby boy was a gift from God. As her stomach throbbed in pain as she held her child, she prayed the line would move faster.

The fear on the woman’s face was easy to see. Pregnant with twins, the young woman entered the Maison de Naissance birthing center in central Haiti scared for her life and her unborn children. Her labor had stopped progressing.

Her fear was warranted.

With the highest maternal and fetal death rates in the world, women in Haiti risk their lives to have children.  It should be the happiest time in a woman’s life. But for many women living in poverty, pregnancy is a time of anxiety, illness – and even death.

The medical mission team visiting the birthing center in Jacmal, Haiti told us that the mother’s condition was critical.

“When we met Maria, she was not progressing, said Linda Johnson who helped coordinate medical supplies for the mission. “We were told that three weeks before our arrival, a woman pregnant with twins had gone to a different facility too late into labor. All three died - the mother and two babies.

“…Love each other as I have loved you.” - John 15:12

In a week that is full of hearts and candy, we want you to remember something much more important: God loves you.

The love of God is greater than any other circumstances in your life. It is a perfect love that doesn’t depend on how you act or feel. God will always love you.

It is God’s love that motivates us at MAP to reach out to others. We know that the love we show others is just a small reflection of the love shown us.

So often we hear from people who have felt forgotten, alone, without hope—until they received the gift of healing through medicine. They tell us that this is a true sign of God’s love.

Angelina, a pregnant mother of three, lives with her children in a slum near a large garbage dump in Guatemala City.

Her life isn’t easy. Toxic fumes and burning garbage threaten her family’s health and gangs threaten their safety. But in the middle of this horrific setting, Angelina and her family find hope at a clinic filled with medicines provided by MAP International.

Angelina’s youngest daughter, Charon, is just five years old and is already suffering from respiratory issues from
the burning trash at the dump. This family has no other option; this is their home. Living without hope was unbearable, but then they found the Heart of Love clinic. 

Heart of Love clinic, started by nurse Lelah and her husband pastor Saul (pictured right), provides Angelina and her children with medicines for their respiratory issues as well as vitamins free of charge.

Can you imagine waiting hours in line for food at a grocery store? How about driving to your local pharmacy and finding out they don’t have the medicine you need for your sick child?

For the people of Venezuela, this has been their reality for years.  

Severe food shortages and hyperinflation have forced millions to flee the country. The Pharmaceutical Federation of Venezuela estimates the country is suffering from an 85 percent shortage of medicine.  

In Venezuela, there are no visits to the urgent care center if you are injured or sick. Any type of sickness or injury can carry devastating consequences.This has prompted a national health crisis. 

Despite this madness, medical missionaries are there serving the neediest. And they are turning to MAP International to provide them with the medicine they need to serve those in need.

This Sunday, January 27, is World Leprosy Day, a day to raise awareness of a disease that many people believe to be eradicated from the planet.

The global elimination of leprosy was officially announced in 2000. However, approximately 210,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, and some believe millions more are living undiagnosed.

For over 60 years, on the last Sunday of January, people around the world have observed World Leprosy Day by remembering and praying for those living with the terrible effects of the disease.

Leprosy is a chronic, infectious disease that develops slowly, with an average incubation period of five years. It is caused by a bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae, and chiefly affects the skin, peripheral nerves, mucous membranes of the respiratory tract, and eyes. It is curable. But, when left untreated they can cause severe deformities and have life-threatening consequences.

During her worst times, the days were long and the nights seemed endless for Marcia Emerson.

Marcia was living out of her car in Atlanta, Ga., homeless, lonely and in need of medical assistance. She was unable to afford her diabetes medication, which made her anxious and contributed to her depression.

Fortunately, Marcia (pictured right) found a place she could go to get help. The Good Samaritan Health Center was a refuge in Marcia’s darkest times. The community health center, located on the west side of Atlanta, offers free medications, physician’s visits  and  a hot meal.

“When folks come here, they are treated like real people. We’re not just put on the back burner,” she says. “We’re treated like Christ would’ve treated us.”

People like Marcia are why MAP launched its Domestic Medicine Program (DMP). This partnership with the Good Samaritan Health Center and other charitable clinics in the state of Georgia provides medicines at no cost to uninsured and underinsured citizens who have fallen through the cracks of the healthcare system.

“It started with a small sore on my face,” remembers Magdalena. “But soon my entire face was swollen and deformed.”

Magdalena lives in rural Haiti, far away from a clinic. So she suffered as inflammation on her face spread and her pain became almost unbearable. “It was very painful,” she says, “but I was also ashamed because I looked so ugly. No one wanted to look at me.

“I had terrible headaches and I couldn’t sleep because of the pain. Because of that I couldn’t work or care for my family. I thought I would die and I worried what would happen to my children.”

Imagine living in Tennessee or North Carolina when a cold front dumps freezing rain on your town. Now imagine if you lived in a tent or make-shift hut with no heating and that same cold front blew through your city. Or worse, the rains swept your tent away.