Map International
MAP International is a non-profit Christian health organization that partners with people around the world living in adverse conditions and poverty in order to save lives and also develop healthier communities and individual families which make them up. The organization is popular for its 99% efficiency rating and is the non-profit agency of choice for many corporate and individual donors. Its current headquarters are located in Brunswick, GA.
The organization believes that a person can solve all of the problems of a developing third world country such as poverty and diseases. The organization serves the different communities based on their different needs and the different challenges faced in each individual village or country. It is different from other non-profit organizations in the fact that the members of this organization work at the community level to understand the needs of the community and provide them help with their most pressing needs. Once the problems and the specific program is realized, the members do whatever is possible to implement it in the community.
MAP International provides technical expertise, guidance and also financial support to certain extent to the communities. However, most of the process of the planning and implementation of the programs are a result of the various communities working together in order to resolve their issues. MAP just acts as a catalyst to the development of the community as a whole. MAP International has presence in more than 135 countries around the world and is still spreading.
MAP has helped the victims of Haiti in a major way by donating more than $20 million worth of relief materials to the victims. It is currently involved in the country to aid the long term rehabilitation of the people of the country which has a large percentage of its population under the line of poverty. It has also serves the victims of the Katrina hurricane in Mississippi and Louisiana.
Purpose
MAP International's mission is to promote the complete health of human being living around the world in some of the poorest of the communities. It was founded by J. Raymond Knighton with the aim of distributing medicines to needy people around the world.
MAP International fulfills its mission by providing essential medicines to its mission partners, hospitals clinics or other nonprofit organizations. It helps promote the overall development of community health. It also aims to prevent diseases and pandemics in poor countries around the world. It is the vision of the Christian non-profit organization to make a world in which communities, families and even individuals have the capacity and hope to build conditions that promote better health on par the developed countries around the world.
The organization works together with the community members to transform the living conditions, which will be helpful in promoting the emotional, physical, environmental, social, spiritual and economic well-being of the community, families or individuals. MAP seeks to improve the long term health development of communities in developing counties. It provides quick response to humanitarian emergencies in disaster struck regions around the world.
MAP International firmly stands to its Christian beliefs and maintains an affirmed dedication to equal and diverse opportunity for the success of its global mission. The services of MAP are offered to every person regardless of the person's religion, gender, ethnic background, nationality and race.
Major pharmaceutical firms believe in the mission of MAP international and donate medicines worth $250 million every year. Major contributors to the organization's cause include Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Merck and numerous other companies. More than 35 million people around the world benefit from these medicines. The organization also partners with other major non-profit organizations such as CARE, Partners in Health, Christian Aid Ministries, World Vision and International Medical Corps, in order to supply medicines to these agencies to distribute in other parts of the world.
History
MAP International was formed by J. Raymond Knighton in 1954 who received the first donation of $25,000 worth medicines from a major pharmaceutical company. Knighton laid the foundations of the organization in Chicago.
Knighton received the request for donation of medicines from The Schering Corporation, a major pharmaceutical company. Knighton was a director at the Christian Medical Society in Chicago, a non-profit organization that co-ordinated fellowships for Christian medical doctors and students. Knighton had a reputation in Chicago of knowing every possible medical missionary anywhere in the world. This led to the pharmaceutical firms approaching him to ask for information about surplus medicines donations. He accepted the medicines and for the next three months he and his secretary were distributing medicines worth 11 tons to locations around the world that required it the most. This led to the formation of the MAP International, a Christian nonprofit organization that provided essential drugs to mission hospitals and clinics in third world countries and places that require these medicines.
In 1985 MAP moved to Georgia's Atlantic coast from Chicago area. In 1984 MAP also opened its first international office in Kenya, Africa. The move was done to position the medical distribution operations of MAP closer to the warm ocean ports of Brunswick, Savannah and Jacksonville. MAP in 2008 moved to a move energy efficient facility in order to expand its facilities and distribution capabilities.
Since its humble beginnings in 1954, MAP international has successfully delivered more than $4 billion worth of medicines along with other essential goods and supplies to its nonprofit partners, hospitals, mission hospitals and medical mission teams in disaster stricken areas. The organization has serves in more than 135 countries and also annually serves more than 115 countries around the world. It sfirst successful emergency relief effort was in Taiwan, which was struck by the devastating Typhoon Gloria in 1963.
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