The World Health Ambassador Program (WHA) was established to provide medical relief efforts to communities throughout the world that are in desperate need of medical and dental assistance. The Program seeks to offer medical and dental care to underserved communities overseas, regardless of ethnicity or religion, and to assist in medical relief efforts for natural disasters in the United States.
The WHA Program comprises of several core components, including: 1) Health Advisory Team – which analyzes the medical needs of underserved overseas communities and formulating healthcare plans; 2) International Medical Relief Group – which performs overseas medical and dental missions; 3) Emergency Relief Team – which assists with natural disaster relief efforts and other medical needs within the U.S.; 4) Medical Support Team – which provides the logistics to the various operations mentioned above.
The Cambodia Medical Relief Mission is the inaugural project of the WHA’s International Medical Relief Group. We plan to bring a health care team of physicians, dentists, nurses, computer specialists, and other professionals to provide medical and dental treatments to the Cambodian and Vietnamese living in several villages outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. During the late 1970s, Cambodia suffered one of the worst atrocities in human history. Over 20% of the population was killed. Since then, while Cambodia has been on the path of recovery, it remains among the “poorest of the poor” Southeast Asian countries. Many living in Cambodia are in extreme need of basic medical and dental care but are not able to obtain such treatment.
As part of our mission, we intend to screen, diagnose, and treat approximately 2,500 people during our 14-day mission. While in Cambodia, we will work closely with the local health providers as well as key community leaders and professionals, sharing with them our medical and scientific knowledge and providing to them recommendations on the appropriate approaches to deliver health care to people in under-developed countries. Since the inception of the WHA Program just a short time ago, we have been very gratified by the overwhelming interest in this project. To date, over thirty professionals have volunteered to serve on this Cambodian mission. Additional volunteers have been placed on our alternate list.
The Vietnamese American Medical Association was established in 1987 as a non-profit organization for physicians of Vietnamese heritage who live and practice in the United States. During the past decades, membership in the VAMA has grown tremendously to include not only members who graduated from medical schools in Vietnam but also members who have graduated from medical schools in the United States. Many members of the VAMA currently are respected professors at universities and medical centers across America, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Duke, University of California at San Francisco, while others are leaders in the communities across America, providing health care to patients of all ethnic backgrounds
In recent years, the VAMA has been very active in activities such as conducting hepatitis screening for Asian American in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, and other cities; granting scholarship to outstanding Vietnamese American medical students in the US; organizing health fair in many U.S. cities to screen for hypertension, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, dental abnormalities, visual disabilities; supporting other organizations whose mission is to improve quality health care for people of all ethnic backgrounds, especially members from Southeast Asian countries; and most recently, creating the World Health Ambassador Program. The VAMA is proud to be the sponsor for this Cambodian Mission through its WHA Program.
The diverse, large number of service-oriented activities sponsored by the VAMA has led to the establishment of the Vietnamese American Medical Association Foundation, an integral component of the VAMA that has achieved full tax-exempt status under section 501 (C) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Any contribution that is made to the VAMA Foundation for the WHA Program and the Cambodian Medical Relief Mission is deductible under section 170 of the code.
