Disaster Relief

Need Help After a Disaster?
Bring RAM To Your Community

Remote Area Medical’s Disaster Relief arm reaches around the world. Through partnerships with global organizations, and thanks to international volunteers, we are able to respond to natural and man-made disasters by land, sea, and air, delivering medical relief and other humanitarian aid to people in need.

Support Our Disaster Relief Efforts

RAM directs 100% of all designated donations to the destination a donor chooses.

RAM Disaster Expeditions

Nassau, Bahamas

>In 2019, Remote Area Medical,  in collaboration with a number of local and international organizations, delivered free dental care to more than 550 individuals in Nassau, Bahamas, Oct. 25-28, as part of a relief effort in the wake of Hurricane Dorian. This free 4-day clinic served children and families displaced from their homes after the category 5 hurricane decimated many parts of the country.

Callaway, FL

In December 2018, Remote Area Medical served 500 patients needing free dental, vision, and medical services in Callaway, FL after the devastation left by Hurricane Michael. Thanks to a collaboration with Walmart, St. Vincent’s HealthCare, Florida Blue, PanCare, and dedicated volunteers, these services totaled more than $158,000 in free care. The event was held at the Walmart Supercenter in Callaway and services including dental cleanings, dental fillings, dental extractions, dental x-rays, eyeglasses made on-site, and general medical exams.

Puerto Rico

From December 1 through December 22, 2017, RAM operated five mobile medical clinics in western Puerto Rico. The clinics occurred in the following locations: San Germán, Añasco, San Sebastián, Moca, and Aguada. These clinics offered free dental, vision, and medical care to Puerto Ricans on a first-come, first-serve basis. As with all of its mobile medical clinics, RAM served everyone, regardless of background or ability to pay. During these clinics, RAM treated 2,322 patients who desperately needed care for a total dollar value of care of $728,128. RAM, in partnership with FedEx, also delivered 63,000 pounds of disaster relief supplies to Puerto Rico.

Hurricane harvey/Irma

RAM helped Hurricane Harvey victims by delivering 22,000 bottles of water; 7 pallets of diapers; 6 pallets of hygiene supplies, totaling thousands of bottles of shampoo, soap, body wash, deodorant and shaving cream, feminine hygiene items, and medical and first-aid items; 200 blankets and over 172 sleeping bags; 120 bags of dog food; 200 air mattresses; and 1,800 ready-to-eat meals. As Hurricane Irma threatened Florida, RAM flew its King Air airplane to Tampa and rescued 31 cats and 7 dogs from Florida shelters. RAM flew the animals from Florida to its headquarters in Rockford, Tennessee where they went to local shelters to be well- taken care of and find new families.

2016 Haiti Hurricane

Hurricane Matthew’s category 4 winds and rain left Haiti in ruins when it swept the country in early October of 2016. More than 1,000 lives were lost in Haiti alone. RAM volunteer pilot Joe Blasenstein and RAM AIRBORNE® Director Dick Stoops, along with RAM Medical Director Chris Sawyer, MD, touched down in Port-au-Prince 72 hours after the storm struck Haiti. They joined forces with Air Mobile Ministries to begin dropping food in devastated areas. Stan Brock and a second RAM team joined on October 16. The two teams have now successfully airdropped 24,804 and delivered 30,310 high-nutrition meals made by Feeding Children Everywhere, Deliver the Difference, and Feed My Starving Children to isolated Hurricane Matthew victims in Western Haiti.

2016 Louisiana Flood

A volunteer RAM team responded to the August 2016 flood in Louisiana with a truckload of medical supplies, personal hygiene items, food, and water. Now, residents of Baton Rouge need help cleaning up what’s left of their homes after the devastating flood. That’s why we started Operation Pick Up. Pick up your friends, pick up your tools, pick up to fix up homes in Baton Rouge.

2015 Nepal Earthquake

The April 25, 2015 M 7.8 Nepal earthquake occurred as the result of thrust faulting on or near the main frontal thrust between the subducting India plate and the overriding Eurasia plate to the north. [source] In coordination with Deerwalk, Inc & Institute of Technology, which is a software development firm and a technology school that works both in the US and in Nepal, RAM Volunteers treated 475 patients. Our coordination with the World Health Organization indicated that areas more remote than Kathmandu required aid, so we transported volunteers daily from Deerwalk facilities to red zones in order to maximize our resources.

Bring RAM To Your Community After A Disaster

Remote Area Medical is the pioneer of free, quality mobile clinics, and we are the largest organization of its kind. Partnering with RAM means potential for major impact and positive change in your community. Our disaster response goal is to fill gaps in people’s vision and basic medical needs as they move from immediate disaster response into long-term disaster recovery. Remote Area Medical Disaster Response currently consists of general medical consultations and complete vision exam clinics including bringing a mobile eye lab and making most prescriptions same day onsite. Our current timeframe target is to respond 2-3 weeks after a disaster strikes. We do not want to be on the ground immediately after a disaster as we do not want to take resources away from first responders completing critical tasks such as active rescue, checking homes for survivors, trauma care, restoring power and clearing roads. We currently do not offer dental services in the disaster response model (please see “Bring RAM To Your Community” under “Get Involved” on our home page for more info on a standard RAM clinic including dental services).

For more information, or if you have any questions about how to bring RAM to your community after a disaster, please contact Stephen at disaster@ramusa.org.

What is a disaster relief community host group?

We only hold free clinics in communities that invite us. Motivated community members, community leaders, and/or local nonprofits join together to host RAM. These compassionate coalitions form Community Host Groups (CHGs). Disaster Response Community Host Groups fill the same roles as a standard RAM clinic CHG but in as short a timeframe as possible.

What is the disaster relief community host group’s role?

Community Host Group members commit extensive time and effort to recruit, mobilize, and organize a RAM Clinic in cooperation with RAM HQ. Community Host Groups will lead, promote, host, and recruit. Planning a standard RAM clinic can take a year or longer. Disaster relief clinics take the same funding, planning and effort, compressed into as short a timeframe as possible.

How RAM can Help

Turnkey Clinic Event
RAM provides vision equipment, mobile units, tools, consumables, organization and logistics as a part of our partnership. Once we complete the accelerated planning phases with you, we bring equipment and core volunteers to team with general support volunteers and set up a turnkey clinic in a matter of hours.
Expert Support
We are with you every step of the way from planning to implementation. We help your team succeed in promoting, recruiting, and leading by providing expert support staff with experience gained over more than one thousand successful expeditions since 1985.
Low Cost For the Community

RAM shares the financial burden of a disaster response clinic. A Disaster Response Community Host Group raises needed funding for the clinic, and RAM shares the cost by providing additional resources.

Professional Prcoesses
RAM leads with experience. The processes we bring to disaster response clinic expeditions maximizes the work hours of all volunteers, including health care professionals, so together we can reach a higher volume of patients. After all, we want to help as many people as we can.
Cutting Edge Technology
RAM uses a one-of-a-kind electronic registration system able to process patients and volunteers quickly, while tracking real-time data for value of medical care, volunteer work hours, and patient services. Our mobile units have been customized for large volume and mobile maneuverability so we can set up almost anywhere and treat hundreds of hurting people in a matter of hours.

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