Team of Physicians for Peace Volunteers Leaves for India

NORFOLK, VA (11/03/2010)(readMedia)-- A six-person team of Hampton Roads-area volunteers will leave for India on Friday, Nov. 5, for a Physicians for Peace (PFP) mission to Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Sawangi, India. Funded by a $25,000 grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the mission is focused on maternal and child health and led by Dr. Edward Karotkin, chairman of PFP's Board of Trustees.

"This mission represents an important step forward in Physicians for Peace's efforts to provide medical education and training to our peers in India," said Karotkin, a neonatologist at the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters (CHKD), and a professor of Pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School. "By working closely with other organizations, partners and friends, we're ensuring that our volunteers' talents and skills are put to effective use in places that can really benefit from this specialized training."

On the mission, PFP team members will educate Indian health professionals on critical neonatal and pediatric life-saving techniques, creating an immediate cadre of trained healthcare providers and empowering those providers to improve the prognoses of thousands of children and reduce neonatal, infant and under-five mortality rates.

"Access to quality healthcare, especially in rural India is very important for the overall social development of the country," said Kaku Nakhate, president of Bank of America, India. "This initiative by Physicians for Peace of providing training in maternal and child health care in rural India will go a long way to benefit the lives of many mothers and children in these areas augmenting the good work being done by the government and other social organizations in this space."

Working with Dr. Satish Deopujari, the founder and chairman of India's National Conference on Pediatric Critical Care, members of the PFP team also will serve as guest lecturers at an international conference on life- threatening pediatric diseases in Nagpur, India, offering their expertise on sepsis, staph infections, labor and delivery techniques and anesthesiology.

Since 2000, PFP has provided Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) and Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) training to healthcare providers in the developing world, including India. The American Heart Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics created PALS to assist health-care providers in recognizing early signs of pediatric and infant distress and in intervening to prevent respiratory and cardiopulmonary arrest. Standardized and developed with the American Academy of Pediatrics, NRP is an educational program that introduces the concepts and basic skills of neonatal resuscitation.

Charlie Henderson, Hampton Roads market president for Bank of America, presented the $25,000 grant award to Edward A. Heidt Jr., former chairman of the PFP Board of Trustees, during a ceremony Sept. 9 at the group's headquarters in Norfolk, Va.

The mission team returns to the U.S. on Nov. 19. Photos from the mission will be available upon request. Mark your calendars for a mission debrief Dec. 9 at 4 p.m. at PFP headquarters, 500 East Main Street, Norfolk, VA, 23510. To attend, please register with Sallie Ray by phone at (757) 625-7569 or by e-mail at sray@physiciansforpeace.org.

About Physicians for Peace

Physicians for Peace is an international non-profit organization that mobilizes volunteer healthcare professionals to assist developing nations with unmet medical needs and scarce resources. Through effective, hands-on medical education and training, clinical care and donated medical supplies, Physicians for Peace develops long-term, sustainable, replicable, and evidence-based programs to help partner nations build medical capability and capacity to help themselves. Since 1989 Volunteers for the 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization have conducted medical missions in more than 60 countries. With its headquarters in Norfolk, Va., Physicians for Peace has programs in 22 countries and offices in Manila, the Philippines and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In 2009, the organization celebrated its 20th Anniversary. For more information, go to: www.physiciansforpeace.org

Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy

Building on a long-standing tradition of investing in the communities it serves, last year Bank of America embarked on a new, 10-year goal to donate $2 billion to nonprofit organizations engaged in improving the health and vitality of their neighborhoods. Funded by Bank of America, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation gave more than $200 million in 2009, making the bank one of the largest corporate cash donors in the United States. Bank of America approaches investing through a national strategy under which it works with local leaders to identify and meet the most pressing needs of individual communities. Reaffirming a commitment to develop and sustain a culture of service, the bank announced the "Million Hour Challenge," a pledge by the company's associates around the world to donate 1 million volunteer hours by the end of 2010. In 2009, bank associate volunteers contributed more than 800,000 hours to enhance the quality of life in their communities nationwide. For more information about Bank of America Corporate Philanthropy, please visit www.bankofamerica.com/foundation

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