AmeriCares and Save The Children Partner to provide field hospital in Pakistan

Serving an affected population of 50,000 people

Stamford, CT, November 17 2005 – AmeriCares is teaming up with Save the Children to provide a field hospital for Pakistan’s devastated town of Bana, located in the remote Allai Valley where health concerns remain acute following last month’s deadly 7.6-magnitude earthquake. Through this partnership, AmeriCares is donating and delivering a comprehensive, semi-permanent 15-bed field hospital to Save the Children. Save the Children will manage and provide initial staffing for the facility, which will serve as the interim Rural Health Center in this ravaged region for the next two years.

The field hospital will arrive in Islamabad tomorrow and will be transported Saturday by helicopter to Bana, North-West Frontier Province, where local hospitals and clinics have been decimated. The hospital includes separate rooms for an operating theater, emergency treatment, a gynecology/labor ward, a laboratory, a radiology unit and a 15-bed patient ward. These durable climate-controlled fabric structures are designed to stand up to harsh weather and provide a clean, safe environment for patient care. In addition to donating the structure, AmeriCares also is financing the purchase of patient beds, exam tables, stretchers, wheel chairs, X-ray equipment, surgical supplies and other items necessary to completely equip the hospital. With transport and delivery, the value of this donation is estimated at $500,000.

This interim Rural Health Center will provide services to more than 50 villages that are home to about 50,000 people. Serving as a critical treatment center for injuries and minor procedures, it also will enable follow-up care for the thousands of patients who were treated in a tented facility set up in Bana within days after the earthquake struck. Save the Children has been providing and coordinating health care services in Bana and in Batagram city, and it will support the hiring of supplementary key staff to ensure the ongoing, effective operation and management of the new Rural Health Center.

“Children and their families in the Allai Valley are extremely vulnerable. They face ongoing and imminent health threats—be they from quake-inflicted wounds, exposure to the cold, or diarrhea and pneumonia,” said Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children. “The short- and long-term benefits of having this fully equipped AmeriCares facility in the region will be enormous.”

“The situation in Pakistan remains critical. By working together with Save the Children, our partnership will allow us to help address health care needs of tens of thousands of people who vitally need these services,” said Curt Welling, president and CEO of AmeriCares.

This latest initiative is part of a comprehensive, ongoing effort by both humanitarian agencies to provide relief to Pakistan’s earthquake survivors. About 70,000 people were injured, with children disproportionately affected by the disaster and now at particular risk from ailments such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, measles and tetanus.

To learn more about AmeriCares, log onto sandbox.americares.org or call 1-800-486-HELP (4357). To learn more about Save the Children, log onto www.savethechildren.org or call 1-800-728-3843.