PHI is committed to providing the world’s citizens with freedom from death and suffering from preventable disease through the implementation of basic, low cost public health programs. This commitment is reflected in the development of well-planned and sustainable public health programs and in PHI’s long-standing support of cooperating humanitarian organizations.
Central to PHI’s method of operations is the involvement of the indigenous population from the inception of a project. The partnership involves PHI’s
securing funding and providing technical expertise and training so that the indigenous population can operate the programs themselves. Because of their involvement, the local population has complete ownership of all projects. The best example of this method is PHI’s Salud Para el Pueblo project in Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua and Honduras.
PHI accomplishes its goal of project sustainability by forging partnerships with in-county governmental and non-
governmental agencies, providing basic public health training and initial project materials, and developing long term in-country business support.
In most refugee and disaster settings PHI, provides experienced public health professionals to develop public health programs for many NGO’s providing on-site relief to refugees. PHI volunteers work to develop the public health programs of on-site NGO’s rather than claim project ownership in order to remove the potential for inter-agency competition during times of conflict and to insure the greatest application of aid to refugees.
PHI saves lives by eliminating the spread of the communicable diseases found in all refugee camps. It is not unusual for PHI volunteers to drop the daily death rate in a refugee sitting from hundreds per day to one to two per day in under 30 days through the application of basic public health and sanitation practices.
PHI volunteers work in two distinctly different environments:
1. Refugee and disaster relief in countries in conflict
2. Public health program development in stable indigenous populations.