International Medical Corps - History

History

International Medical Corps was founded by Dr. Robert Simon, a young emergency-room physician at UCLA Medical Center, who was moved to take action after learning about the plight of the Afghan people as a result of the 1979 Soviet invasion and subsequent occupation. All but 200 of the country’s 1,500 doctors had been executed, imprisoned, or exiled, and relief agencies had been ordered out of the country, worsening the shortage of doctors, although Médecins Sans Frontières had been in Afghanistan since 1980.

Simon began making trips to Afghanistan to provide medical assistance directly to civilians, eventually selling his Malibu home to finance a clinic in the battered Kunar River Valley. Eventually, understanding that a few new clinics would not meet the overwhelming health care needs of Afghans, Simon set up a full-time Afghan medical training center in the nearby – and relative security of - the Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan.

At the end of one nine-month course, the Afghan medics trained by International Medical Corps were able to diagnose and treat 75-80 percent of the injuries and illnesses they encountered in the field. By 1990, International Medical Corps had graduated more than 200 medics who helped established 57 clinics and 10 hospitals in 18 provinces throughout rural Afghanistan.