When Typhoon Durian hit The Philippines coast on November 30, 2006, causing extensive and widespread damage to 24 provinces, over three million people were left homeless. Operation USA and our partner Australian Aid International (AAI) collaborated in a humanitarian response to provide emergency medical services to those injured as a result of the typhoon. AAI is a well-established OpUSA partner in Indonesia where successful health and education projects were implemented in the wake of the devastating earthquake in Yogyakarta in May 2006.

On December 10, 2006, an AAI Disaster Assessment and Response Team comprising of two doctors and a paramedic from Australia, together with two doctors and a nurse from the United States, departed for The Philippines. Medical volunteers from Los Angeles and San Francisco hand-carried vital emergency medical supplies and equipment from Operation USA's supply warehouse in the Port of Los Angeles.

Once on the ground in The Philippines, AAI promptly established mobile medical clinics utilizing Operation USA's medical supplies. These clinics were urgently required in order to supplement the existing medical services that were struggling desperately to cope with the overwhelming number of casualties resulting from the disaster.

Over the next few days the team ran numerous medical clinics at evacuation centers set up in local elementary schools that had survived the devastation. After ten days on the ground and with The Philippines Ministry of Health now able to cope with the situation, AAI shut down operations and left The Philippines on December 20, 2006, concluding a successful emergency response which filled the medical service gaps that inevitably occur as a result of large scale disasters.

Operation USA's ability to respond to similar disasters around the world and reinforce our partner emergency first response teams on the ground is entirely dependent on support from our donors - with bulk medical supplies, air miles to transport our medical team to the disaster region or simply money. Every little bit helps in an emergency response and when you generously give, OpUSA makes sure it gets there.