Project HOPE (USA)

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This article is about US philanthropic organization. For the Chinese service project see Project Hope

SS Hope

Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is an international health care organization founded in the United States in 1958. Its most visible aspect was the SS HOPE, the first peacetime hospital ship (converted from the USS Consolation (AH-15)). The SS HOPE was retired in 1974, after sailing to Indonesia, Vietnam, Peru, Ecuador, Guinea, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Tunisia, Jamaica, and Brazil. On these voyages doctors, nurses, and technical staff provided medical care and training to people in each country visited. Today there are organizations in Germany and the United Kingdom, in addition to the original organization in the United States.

Project HOPE helps different developing countries in efforts to eradicate infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis. They also help educate parents on how to prevent and treat diseases for their children and themselves, and also train health professionals. Project HOPE also sets up village health banks, which give small loans to women so they can improve their health and family's health. The village health banks also educate women on health.

In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, HOPE sent volunteer medical response teams to the area, where they provided nursing care to people in need. As of July 2006, HOPE continues to provide aid to the people on the Gulf Coast who were hit by Hurricane Katrina. In the spring of 2006, they helped staff the U.S. Navy hospital ship, known as the Mercy, with volunteer physicians and nurses to South Asia.

MISSION STATEMENT

Project HOPE works to achieve sustainable advances in health care around the world by implementing health education programs and providing humanitarian assistance in areas of need. Project HOPE is unique among international organizations in that we have always worked across the health spectrum in a wide variety of settings, from the family and community levels to the tertiary care level, training traditional birth attendants and community health volunteers where resources are limited and cardiac surgeons and biomedical engineers where technology is appropriate. Project HOPE addresses infectious diseases, health professional education, women's and children's health, humanitarian assistance, and the need for health systems and facilities.

Board of Directors

Charles A. Sanders, M.D. - Chairman Retired Chairman & CEO GlaxoSmithKline

John P Howe, III, M.D President & CEO Project HOPE

Arno Bohn Bohn Consult GmbH

William F. Brandt, Jr. Director & Co-Founder American Woodmark

Mrs. Edward N. Cole Briar Patch Ranch

Nancy T. Chang , Ph. D. Chief Executive Officer Tanox, Inc

Richard T. Clark President & CEO Merck & Company, Inc.

Sue Desmond-Hellmann, M.D. President, Product Development Genentech, Inc.

John W. Galiardo

Jack M. Gill Ph.D. President The Gill Foundation

Franz B. Humer Chairman & CEO F. Hoffman-LaRoche, Ltd