About the International Service Club

The International Service Club was started five years ago by several first-year osteopathic medical student at Western University of Health Sciences. Their initial goal was to provide aid to those affected by the tsunami in South East Asia. Since then, groups of students have carried on the tradition of traveling to locations through out the globe to provide health care services to communities in need. In 2005, ISC sent medical students to Sri Lanka. In 2006, members travelled to Pakistan to work with the Islamic Medical Association of North America in response to the devastating earthquake in Kashmir. 2007 and 2008 saw ISC WesternU students travel to Peru and Guatemala and the flooding of the 2008 monsoon season prompted students to lend relief to residents of Bihar, India.

This year we have elected to travel to Haiti to provide medical supplies and services to the residents in and around Petite Riviere De Nippes, a rural village southwest of Port-au-Prince. We will be working with our partners at Visitation Hospital (www.visitationhospital.org) to provide these services. While this area did not suffer significant damage during the earthquake, the flood of people out of the Port-au-Prince has added more stress to an already fragile health care system.

We will use this blog to share with you our experiences, photos, and provide you with opportunities to show your support and get involved as we near our departure date of July 19, 2010. Please check back often as we will be relying on your support to help make this service experience possible.