The Viet Nam Medical Assistance Program (VNMAP) was started by a group of students from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. The pilot mission took place in June, 2007.  With a team of 11 membersincluding medical doctors, medical students, and volunteers, we served the patients at Dien Khanh Hospital located in Khanh Hoa Province, Viet Nam. During the mission, we realized the great need for medical care of the poor and the minority population in the central region of Viet Nam. Through providing care for these people, it was a great opportunity for the medical students and volunteers to acquire a valuable experience in practicing medicine and learning about the medical system in Viet Nam.

After our first mission, our team built contacts with several charity organizations in Viet Nam that are in critical need of assistance to provide health care to the poor.

After working with these organizations, a small group of dedicated members from the pilot mission established VNMAP.  From these missions, we set our first priority for VNMAP, which is to provide health services and health education to the many less fortunate people in Viet Nam. At the same time, we want  to provide learning opportunities for its participants through these medical missions.

With the overwhelming need and many requests for help, a single team cannot provide the necessary services to all locations. VNMAP is open to collaborating with different medical teams that want to work in Viet Nam and share our vision.  Together, we will be able to bring better health to the poor and minority residents in the rural areas of Viet Nam.

While working to promote health for the poor in central region of Vietnam, VNMAP was approached by different people in the Vietnamese communities in the US requesting us to bring health education and awareness program to Vietnamese population in the U.S.

Through working with the Vietnamese communities, we found that many families do not have health insurance and there is a lack of knowledge in health problems.  These findings have led VNMAP to set another priority: to decrease the knowledge gap in health problems and to promote health in the Vietnamese communities in the U.S