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RAM
History |
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The
vision for Remote Area Medical®
developed in the Amazon rain forest where founder Stan
Brock spent 15 years with the Wapishana Indians.
He lived with the pain and suffering created by isolation
from medical care. He witnessed the near devastation
of whole tribes by what would have been simple or minor
illnesses to more advanced cultures. When he left South
America to co-star in the television series, "Wild
Kingdom, " he vowed to find a way to deliver basic
medical aid to people in the world's inaccessible regions.
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The
organization was founded in 1985 and years of research
and planning yielded a vast, carefully developed network
of men and women who have come together to make RAM
a highly mobile, remarkably efficient relief force.
Volunteers are doctors, nurses, technicians, and veterinarians
who go on expeditions at their own expense and treat
hundreds of patients a day under some of the worst conditions.
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Volunteers have provided general medical, surgical, eye,
dental, and veterinary care to tens of thousands of
people and animals, with 60% of the expeditions serving
rural America. There are plans for expansion of US expeditions,
an airborne medical treatment center, a permanent clinic
site in Guyana, and a program start-up in Africa.
And...there are dreams. Dreams
for a comprehensive center of operations.Dreams for
learning the medicinal secrets of the rain |
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a continent how -- and why -- to save it. Dreams for a
flying hospital. Dreams of a world where people help each
other just because they can. |
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On March 3 2004, the Senate at the
state capitol in Nashville Tennessee passed a resolution
honoring Remote Area Medical® for "Compassion
and Dedication to providing medical care." Founder
Stan Brock is shown here with Governor Phil Bredesen
with the award. |
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