Church Group Expands Disease-Fighting Work to Congo

Formed 40 years ago to collect and ship donated drugs for Methodist medical missions, Interchurch Medical Assistance Inc. channels more than $12 million in hospital supplies to relief and development programs around the world. Funded by 12 Protestant organizations, it now leads efforts to eliminate elephantiasis in Haiti and to control river blindness in Tanzania. It is also developing a project to support those caring at home for people with HIV and AIDS, especially in Africa. "You can't just turn your back on it," said President Paul M. Dertsine, who joined the group in 1992 after nearly 30 years in banking and Third World relief work. "To me, it's unethical, it's immoral and it's not part of my faith to say, 'I'll just ignore that' when you know you can do something about it."

Interchurch continues to pursue its original mission as a clearinghouse for donated drugs. It has recently taken on its biggest project yet as contractor for a federally funded program aimed at improving health care in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. Interchurch has received $1 million from the federal Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance to provide emergency aid in the Congo, and it is in the final stages of securing a US Agency for International Development grant that could amount to $25 million over five years.

In the early 1990s, Interchurch was hit with criticism that it was helping the pharmaceutical industry dump inappropriate and expired drugs at disaster and emergency sites. Subsequently, it helped write international guidelines aimed at ensuring that donated drugs have not expired and meet the needs of people in developing countries.

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