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Medical and
Humanitarian Activities
 The
Order follows its historic rule of "obsequium pauperum" for the
needy and sick and today works in more than 110 countries, giving
medical and social help, through disaster relief in the case of
armed conflicts or natural catastrophes, helping young people and
providing first aid training. In carrying out these activities, it
depends on the involvement of its 10,000 members, as well as
approximately 80,000 trained volunteers and 11,000 employees, most
of whom are medical personnel.
The Order's national organizations (including its Grand Priories,
National Associations, relief organizations and foundations) in the
countries where they are present, are responsible for carrying out
the Order's activities. The permanent institutions - such as
hospitals, hospices and old peoples' homes - are either managed
directly by the Priories or Associations, or by subordinate bodies.
The Relief
Services / Ambulance Corps
Most of the
volunteers work as part of the Order's relief organizations or
ambulance corps. They perform first aid, disaster relief and social
services. In addition to this, extensive youth work is being carried
out in the relief organizations and 30 countries have set up similar
organizations. Since the foundation of the ambulance corps in
Ireland more than 60 years ago (1938), the operation of relief
services has developed into one of the Order's most important
activities. The foundation and development of relief services has
also been very successful in Central and Eastern Europe since the
fall of the Iron Curtain. With these services, the Order has been
able to expand its functions considerably, and involve a great
number of people in helping to carry out its mission. Thus,
Christian social commitment is carried out in an organized way, as
part of a community with social responsibility. The vitality and
appeal of the Order's mission is demonstrated in a new way,
especially in the relief services.
Hospitals,
Medical Centers and Medical Programmes
Most of the
Order's hospitals are situated in Europe, especially in Germany,
France, Belgium, England and Italy, the majority being general
hospitals. The Order's hospital in Rome is specialized in
neurological treatment and rehabilitation. The hospitals in England
and Belgium, as well as some in Germany, have special units for the
treatment of the terminally ill, with appropriate palliative
specialists. Similar special units work in Argentina, Italy, the
USA, South Africa and Australia. Care for the terminally ill in
hospitals, hospices and at home has developed during recent years
into one of the fundamental aims of the Order's activity. The
combination of full care and specially trained volunteers, in an
environment which operates according to Catholic ethics, is an
important part of the Order's medicine.
In addition to
the medical centers and the hospitals it runs in France, the French
Association runs hospitals and dispensaries in Benin, Togo and
Senegal. As a joint activity of the whole Order a maternity hospital
is run in Bethlehem, Palestine, under the operational
responsibilities of the French Association. Since 1990, more than
25,000 babies have been born there. In Senegal and Cambodia the
Order runs special hospitals for leprosy sufferers.
For a long
time leprosy relief has been one of the main aims of the Order's
work in the Third World. With its special organization, CIOMAL (Comite
International de l'Ordre de Malte), based in Geneva and founded
specifically for this purpose, the Order takes care of the national
leprosy programme in Cambodia and assists in leprosy relief in other
countries, especially in Brazil. Recently CIOMAL extended its
programmes further, to include devoting its care also to the
treatment of pregnant women with HIV, in order to prevent infection
between mother and child. Initial programmes have been started in
Mexico and Senegal.
The Order also
operates many medical centers around the world. In Italy these are
specialized institutions for the care of diabetics. There is a
similar institution in Prague, in the Czech Republic, for children.
Most of the Order's dispensaries are in Lebanon and El Salvador. The
institutions, which were founded during the civil wars in these
countries, are now an important part of their national health
systems. There are medical centers in Poland, Hungary, the USA, the
Dominican Republic, Brazil, Peru and South Africa, too. Furthermore,
in developing countries, many hospitals, medical centers and
dispensaries are supported - and at times directed - by the Order.
In various areas in Africa, which have been affected by armed
conflicts, such institutions have been taken over for a short time,
rehabilitated or advised. In the district of the Great Lakes, as
well as in Kerala, India, the Order supports the setting up of basic
public health services.
The French
Association supports medical institutions in a great number of
countries in West Africa and Madagascar. An important contribution
is the system for the collection and sorting of medicines, which was
set up by the Order in France, and which is approved by the World
Health Organization (WHO).
On many occasions, the Order, through the German relief service, has
taken over the medical care of UN peace missions (Central America,
Kuwait, East Timor, Balkans).
Institutions
for Disabled People and Disabled Relief Service.
In France the
Order maintains five highly specialized Medical Centers for the
seriously disabled. There are also Centers for the disabled in
Hungary, Ecuador and Lebanon. In addition, the Order carries out
many other activities for disabled people, including running yearly
pilgrimages to Lourdes and to other pilgrimage sites, organizing
holiday camps for disabled youngsters and transport services for the
sick, especially in Germany and Scotland.
Institutions
and Relief for Old People
Of increasing
significance are the activities of relief for the elderly. The Order
directs numerous specialized centers for old people in England,
Germany, Spain, Austria, the USA, Chile and Mexico. In various
countries there is a variety of services to make life at home easier
for old people. This includes meals on wheels, transport services,
visiting services, shopping help and the operation of emergency call
systems.
Relief for
Children and Adolescents
In Brazil,
Mexico and Chile, the Order devotes itself to a variety of
programmes of care for children who live in favellas. In Sao Paolo,
for many years the Order has run a model institution with extensive
medical, social and educational help, as well as special programmes
for the training of single mothers. Our Association in Mexico runs a
school with boarding facilities. In Porto, Portugal, there is a home
for young girls who have social difficulties. As well as operating
normal Kindergärten (Germany, South Africa), programmes for
adolescents with social problems are also being set up in Germany.
Another
important area is the youth work in the Order's relief services,
which has founded special youth groups in which children and
adolescents are being taught First Aid, according to their age, and
are being trained to practice social responsibility.
Homeless
People and Drug Addicts
The Order runs
institutions for the homeless in Belgium, France, Switzerland,
Hungary, Germany, Italy and the USA.
In Germany and Portugal the Order is involved with drug addicts,
i.e. the Association in Portugal runs a centre for the
rehabilitation of drug addicts.
Humanitarian
Emergency Relief
 Humanitarian
relief for the victims of natural disaster or armed conflicts is one
of the Order's traditional tasks, taken up again in the mid 19th
century and also carried out during the 1st and 2nd World Wars. In
the second half of the last century these commitments increased.
Included among the main relief actions were: the relief for refugees
during the Hungarian crisis in 1956; setting up and running a
hospital during the Vietnam war; relief service in Thailand for many
years; medical assistance during the civil war in Lebanon and El
Salvador; refugee relief during the Kurd crisis; refugee relief in
the Great Lakes district of Africa; various extensive actions during
the Balkan crisis (1999); earthquake relief in Friuli, Italy, in the
late 1970s, in Armenia in 1989, in Italy in 1997, in Columbia and
Turkey in 1999, in El Salvador in 2000, in India in 2001; repeated
flood and hurricane catastrophe relief in the Ukraine, Hungary and
Romania, and in Honduras in 1998, in Poland in 1999 and in
Mozambique in 2000 and 2001.
To increase
the Order's availability with regard to disaster relief, several
European Priories and Associations worked together to establish ECOM
(the Emergency Corps of the Order of Malta) in which each Order's
entity co-ordinates and carries out relief actions under a
centralized direction, according to their main objectives.
The Order's
neutrality and its impartial and non-political nature make relief
actions possible in situations that are difficult for other
organizations to access. In this respect, the Order's diplomatic
representatives give intrinsic support in the countries concerned.
Where it is
sensible and possible, the Order also carries out reconstruction and
rehabilitation relief work following the acute phase of relief work.
In the Balkans, these activities are extensive and run in close
co-operation with the UNHCR. Similar activities are being carried
out in the district of the Great Lakes in Africa, in Mozambique,
Honduras, El Salvador and India.
Refugees
One of the
Order's traditional tasks is to help refugees and those seeking
asylum - the Order currently runs long-term institutions and
programmes in Germany and Thailand. Again and again, the Order
provides support for short-term activities, depending on the
predicament.
The Financing
of the Order's Activities
Due to the
exceptional diversity and variability, depending on each country,
region and activity, the question of financing the Order's
activities is difficult to answer fully and clearly.
Only in Italy
and Austria do the Order's long-standing properties contribute
towards the financing of the administrative expenses. Otherwise the
Order - as opposed to manifold speculations - does not have
noteworthy property apart from possession of its own medical and
social institutions. Fund raising in the broadest sense is therefore
a crucial activity for building up and assuring the Order's
activities.
Especially in
Western and Southern Europe, many medical and social institutions
and programmes are included in, and are substantially maintained by,
the national health and social systems. Donations from members or
outsiders also contribute to the financing of many programmes,
sometimes decisively. The activities in developing countries are
financed by the Order's Grand Priories and National Associations
like in Germany, France and the USA, by contributions from the EU or
the UN, contributions from national governments, private donations
and donations from foundations. Similar procedures apply to
international emergency relief: in France and Germany especially,
hundreds of thousands of private donors contribute to financing.
Whereas the co-financing of government and non-government
authorities, as well as large foundations, is very often bound to
very precisely defined and restricted conditions and can therefore
only be used for purposes which are already established, the private
donations from members and other private persons allow greater
flexibility for the Order's entities to react quickly and
effectively to new and changing needs.
All the
Order's associations, work, foundations, hospitals, dispensaries,
etc. are subject to a regular external audit, so that the
orderliness of the financial administration is controlled by expert
professionals, according to their national law and practice. In
addition to these local controls, all the entities of the Order are
also submitted to controls by the Order's Board of Auditors. |
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