What We Do

Since 1998, SAM, International has delivered over 15 million dollars in medical assistance and humanitarian aid to the people of North Korea, China, Russia and some of the world's most impoverished countries. Each year, SAM, International sends numerous medical mission teams to the border of China/North Korea and Russia/North Korea to set up field clinics where patients receive free medical treatment and life saving medicines for malnutrition, illnesses and disease prevention.

SAM, International maintains a year round presence in Northeast Asia through doctors, nurses and pharmacists who stay for long term medical missions at the organization's hospitals and clinics. SAM is able to quickly mobilize doctors, medical teams, medicines, medical supplies, equipment and medical survival kits to assist in disaster relief efforts in devastated regions of the world.

In December, 2004, SAM, International sent 10,000 Medical Emergency Supply Kits (MESK) to each of the vacuous clinics throughout desolated North Korea. The clinics in North Korea are completely devoid of any medicines or supplies; North Korean doctors are unable to treat even the most simplest of maladies. One Medical Emergency Supply Kit contains enough medicine and supplies for doctors to treat 300 people. 10,000 Medical Emergency Supply Kits will save millions of lives.

Provision of Free Medical Services and Medicines

SAM, International runs three charity hospitals in Northeast China, the 100 bed Dan Dong-CMWM Hospital, the Shen Yang Love Hospital, and the Dan Dong City Hospital. Additionally, we run three smaller outreach clinics stretching along border regions between North Korea / China and North Korea / Russia. Through these facilities, our medical professionals are able to offer free medical care and distribute appropriate medicines to the local villagers in these impoverished and rural areas, many of these people never having seen a physician before. In these border regions in Northeast Asia, we serve a multitude of nationalities such as the Chinese, Korean Chinese, Russian, Korean Russian and North Koreans. No one in need is ever turned away.
With three hospitals and three clinics, SAM, International's continual presence in Northeast Asia allows our physicians, dentists and nurses to maintain care of the local populations without interruption. As well, teams of doctors fly in from other countries such as South Korea and the United States to perform specialized surgeries and procedures not routinely performed, such as orthopedic surgeries, eye surgeries and cleft palate correction surgeries for children.

The locations of our hospitals and clinics allow for rapid responses to devastating global disasters. We are able to quickly assemble and dispatch medical teams to assist with relief efforts anywhere in the world including Indonesia and North Korea. In 2004, in response to the tragic Young Chung Train Explosion in North Korea, an accident which killed hundreds and injured tens of thousands (mostly children), SAM, International was the first NGO on hand, in the country to aid with relief efforts and to help medically serve the injured and dying. SAM, International swiftly organized the transport of half a million dollars worth of medicines, food, clothing, and reconstruction materials into the country from our Dan Dong-CMWM Hospital. A feat, no other international aid organization was able to match with the same expediency or effect.

Provision of Humanitarian Assistance

SAM, International is able to quickly access and mobilize a wealth of diverse resources in response to devastating humanitarian crises. For the last 20-30 years, the North Korean people have suffered from a lack of the most basic human necessities such as food and clothing. Prolonged starvation and extreme malnutrition coupled with the lack of heat in most homes - as winter temperatures can plummet to twenty degrees below zero - make survival a formidable proposition.

Since 1998, SAM, International has steadily sent food, clothing and medicines across the Yalu River to North Korea from our Dan Dong-CMWM Hospital. In 2004, we started our "Help Pass the Winter in North Korea" campaign. 10,000 winter coats with reinforced linings were sent to the North Korean people to buttress their chances of staying alive during the bitterly cold winters. In addition, medicines and food items such as milk powder, oil and soy beans were sent. During this campaign, SAM, International sent humanitarian aid items to the North Korean people totaling more than1.2 Million Dollars. Thousands of people are alive today because of this particular campaign.

Prevention and Treatment of Diseases

Through our partnerships with reputable pharmaceutical corporations here in the United States and South Korea, coupled with our medical teams of doctors, nurses and dentists, SAM, International is able to help treat diseases such as typhoid, diphtheria and cholera in poverty stricken regions of the world.

Numerous SAM medical teams are sent to impoverished border regions in Northeast Asia where treatable conditions such as high blood pressure, arthritis to diabetes are encountered and have devastating impacts. Because these patients usually have minimal to no access to medical care of any kind, treatment through our field clinics and hospitals is instrumental in encouraging these populations toward stable physical well being.

Prevention of common maladies from augmenting into catastrophic conditions or diseases allows these poor and needy communities an opportunity to overcome cycles of poverty and impoverishment. In 2006 alone, more than 40 medical mission teams were sent to the border regions of Northeast Asia. These medical teams consisted of medical professionals from the United States, South Korea, Australia, England and Germany as well as other nations around the world.

MESK Kit

The North Korean government was established over 50 years ago with a goal to create the greatest socialist republic on earth. Two of the major institutions that supposedly manifest this noble goal are the "free supply distribution system" and the "free health care system." In their efforts to implement a free health care system, the North Korean government set up free clinics in each village, county, and city, approximately 7000 clinics nationwide. The government also trained and assigned medical staffs to these clinics.

However, it is well known that the North Korean medical infrastructure is virtually non-existent and has failed miserably as a chronic lack of medical supplies including the absence of basic medicines and supplies, plagues the clinics, preventing them from effectively helping anyone. SAM, International created the Medical Emergency Supply Kits (MESK) to help the suffering people of North Korea and to equip these vacuous North Korean clinics with life saving medicines, medical supplies and equipment. Each MESK bag contains enough medication and supplies for doctors at each of these clinics to treat at least 300 patients with primary emergency care.
Each MESK bag contains items such as:

Medicine: antipyretics, antibiotics, analgesics, antiparasitic agents, diarrhea medicines, etc.
Medical supplies: bandages, gauze, disinfectants, alcohol, antibiotic ointments, etc.
Equipment: thermometers, sphygmomanometers, stethoscopes, syringes, blood pressure cuffs, etc.

In December, 2004, 10,000 MESK bags consisting of over 400,000 items were assembled in North Korea with ten members from SAM, International supervising the process. After assembly, each of the bags was then personally distributed by SAM members to the 5000 clinics throughout all of North Korea. One SAM member stayed in North Korea for one month afterwards to confirm the transparency and completion of the distribution. SAM has since sent five 40 foot containers to refill the contents and supplies of these distributed MESK bags, with continuous refills scheduled to be sent in the future.

The actual market value of each MESK bag is $200 (Two Hundred US Dollars.) Due to SAM, International's partnerships with reputable organizations around the world, we have been able to furnish these life saving MESK bags at a cost of $50.00 (Fifty US Dollars.) The love, hope and healing that each $50.00 MESK bag can deliver is boundless.