This award recognizes individuals and organizations who provide exemplary disaster response services for highly vulnerable communities. In doing so, they accentuate the value of life and provide an exemplary model for us all.
The 2023 Humanitarian Crisis Response Award recipient is Blessings International. Since 1981, this Tulsa, Oklahoma-based, organization has been working to build healthy communities by serving as a reliable source of pharmaceuticals, vitamins, and medical supplies for mission teams, clinics, and hospitals. One focus of Blessings International’s work has been Ukraine, where 15 months into the war the Ministry of Health Ukraine reports 955 medical facilities damaged and 144 destroyed. Currently, 14 million Ukrainians lack even the most basic healthcare.
One of the most powerful interventions has been to supply oncology medicines to the National Cancer Institute in Kyiv, which ran out completely in the early weeks of the war. Another important Blessings International intervention has been to supply basic medications for Ukrainian refugees, who most often fled without their personal supply. Internally displaced within Ukraine, or as refugees in Poland, Blessings International has worked to supply partner organizations lifesaving medications to control, for example, hypertension, heart failure, and diabetes. One laudable reason for the risk response is the Emergency Disaster Relief Fund established in advance by Blessings International.