Liberian Vice President Visits World Medical Relief

Detroit, May 27, 2009 - Dr. Joseph Boakai, vice-president of the Republic of Liberia and the Liberian Ambassador to the USA, Nathaniel Barnes paid a visit World Medical Relief on Wednesday, May 27. They were escorted by Mike Baydoun, who is the Consul General of the Consulate Republic of Liberia as well as a board member of World Medical Relief. The Liberian delegation was in Detroit to improve economic relations.

Liberia is home to an estimated 3.5 million people and was founded by free African-Americans and freed slaves from the United States in 1820. Ethnic and social tensions with the indigenous people ultimately led to atrocious civil wars from 1989 to 2003 that killed 250,000, displaced 1 million people and left at least 25,000 raped.

During this time most foreign governmental and non-governmental aid pulled out, leaving the Liberian citizens to suffer and die from preventable diseases and from war injuries. Mike Baydoun, board member of World Medical Relief says that he could not stand by and see ?children dying for no reason? and started sponsoring 40 foot container shipments to Liberia with medical equipment and supplies. In all over 20 containers were shipped to Liberia thanks to him and many other individuals and organizations that could not watch this human tragedy unfold without trying to help. Baydoun credits World Medical Relief for its willingness to relieve human suffering without regard to race, color, gender, religion, nationality or political beliefs. Till this day World Medical Relief?s support to Liberia is visible in its hospitals as sixty to seventy percent of the beds currently used originated from the Detroit charity.

The Liberian delegations expressed their gratitude for the humanitarian support provided by World Medical Relief in the past and their wishes for a continued collaboration.

With its headquarters in Detroit, World Medical Relief was established in 1953 to address the needs of Korean War orphans. Over the years, the organization has expanded its mission by providing medical aid to thousands of underserved people in the Detroit metropolitan area and in over 130 developing nations worldwide. Please visit www.worldmedicalrelief.org for more information or to donate.