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A young patient receives care at Urban Health Plan, a health center receiving support from Direct Relief, in the Bronx, NY, on April 2, 2025. This year, health providers continued to serve patients in the face of challenges, including policy changes and natural disasters. (Photo by Sean Collier for Direct Relief.
2025 proved to be a year of immense challenge for many communities, including those rocked by major disasters. The L.A. wildfires, floods in Texas and Mexico, and Hurricane Melissa’s devastation to Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba all resulted in life-altering impacts for people enduring them in the days that followed, and will for years to come.
As catastrophic disasters unfolded this year, everyday needs also expanded, in the U.S., but also globally, as international support from long-relied-upon sources disappeared.
In response, Direct Relief has ramped up support and will continue to do so. But the organization’s strength relies on the heroic health providers working around the world, often in extreme settings at great personal cost.
Doctors caring for evacuees in a church parking lot after nearby clinics were burned to the ground. Health providers in Haiti reporting to work despite the sound of gunfire. Midwives helping women who travel for miles to give birth safely
These are the people Direct Relief is honored to support. When they have the tools they need, their work saves lives.
Dr. Evelyn Wong receives a shipment of essential medicines, including insulin, antibiotics, and inhalers, from Direct Relief staff on Jan. 15, 2025. Dr. Wong is the medical director of Medical Mission Adventures, which runs a mobile medical clinic providing care for patients near the Eaton Fire burn zone in Pasadena. (Photo by Mason Poole for Direct Relief)
When wildfires erupted in Los Angeles in January 2025, displaced evacuees found themselves needing critical medical care. Health providers like Dr. Evelyn Wong swung into action, quickly establishing a mobile clinic in a church parking lot, directly across the street from the burn zone in Altadena.
Campers pose for a photo at a Rwanda Diabetes Association camp for children. (Courtesy photo)
For Dr. Aime Manzi, connecting children with Type 1 diabetes and their families with support is personal. The 27-year-old physician is passionate about helping others manage their health because he remembers feeling hopeless as a young person with Type 1 himself.
Today, he works for the Direct Relief-supported Rwanda Diabetes Association, the organization that supported him with free insulin and monitoring supplies for his own diabetes, reported Talya Meyers. Those efforts are reaching hundreds of children and young people with the tools and education they need to stay in school and live full and rewarding lives.
St. Michael’s Medical Clinic integrates comprehensive mental health services into existing healthcare and social support systems. The free clinic has been able to expand mental health support, thanks to a recent grant. (Photo by St. Michael’s Medical Clinic)
For Mary O’Dell, a counselor at St. Michael’s Medical Clinic in Anniston, Alabama, expanding mental health services is just the start of addressing what patients need, Olivia Lewis reported.
The free clinic began offering counseling and therapy sessions to low-income and unhoused people at the start of the year. With funding from the Community Routes: Access to Mental Health Care program, the clinic has been able to expand services that would otherwise be out of reach.
“So many feel like there are mental health services provided that will fit an issue or provide a solution, but it’s just touching it,” said O’Dell, who works at the free clinic. “We’re just starting to provide a service that has not been there for clients who have just been neglected for a long time.”
A mother at Bahai Arugaan ni Maria relaxes with her newborn. (Courtesy photo)
In a rural area of the Philippines, the lights from a clinic radiate into the darkness, providing a guide for women seeking a safe place to give birth. It’s a beacon of comfort where they’ll receive high-quality, gentle care in a well-maintained facility, reported Talya Meyers.
“Some give birth as soon as they enter the gate,” said Teresa Maniego, COO at the maternity clinic. “Some of them would reach the parking lot.”
Reliable electricity is hard to come by, but a solar installation funded by Direct Relief’s Power for Health initiative, the clinic can be seen from far away at night, simply because it’s brightly lit up.
Even for people who aren’t pregnant, like weary travelers, the clinic feels like a place of safety.
“People will stop in front of the clinic, and take a rest, because there’s just light,” Maniego said. “It’s just such an amazing thing: At Bahai Arugaan, there’s always light. People feel safe stopping here.”
Yaroslava Koshel standing in October 2024 in front of the Clinical Center of Children’s Healthcare in Lviv, one of three hospitals working with Direct Relief and Trikafta manufacturer Vertex to treat cystic fibrosis patients in Ukraine. (Nick Allen/Direct Relief)
Yaroslava Koshel is one of hundreds of Ukrainians living with cystic fibrosis, or CF, and the 23-year-old can think about long-term plans for her life, now that she’s able to manage her disease, reported Nick Allen.
CF is a genetic disease that damages the lungs, digestive system, and other organs, and medication called Trikafta helps many people manage their symptoms and extend life.
“Trikafta has given me the possibility to live for many more years,” said Yaroslava, who began taking the medicine in October 2023 through a CF pilot donation program led by Boston-based pharmaceutical company Vertex, Direct Relief, and three Ukrainian hospitals, including two of the country’s largest children’s hospitals. The program currently operates in 12 countries, including Ukraine, with plans to expand.
Raheema Quaye, a double mastectomy and 19-year cancer survivor, is a peer navigator employed at Peace and Love Hospital and Breast Care International,. Quaye is pictured at a health education event organized by Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai in Ghana during August 2025. (Photo by David Uttley for Direct Relief)
Breast cancer awareness, education, and treatment have been out of reach for many women in Ghana. But Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai is working to get cancer interventions to patients sooner, dramatically increasing survival rates.
In 2002, Addai founded Breast Care International, or BCI, to break the silence surrounding breast cancer in Ghana. She assembled nurses, doctors, and volunteers to fan out into markets, parks, and villages in some of the most remote parts of the country, offering clinical breast screenings and education.
Over time, she expanded awareness campaigns into schools, churches, and on radio programs, reaching thousands, Noah Smith reported. Now, thousands of women can access breast cancer screening, education, and treatment because of her efforts.
Health providers at Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti wait to receive a patient at the health facility. The 200-bed hospital provides critical care in Haiti and has been asked to do more as larger facilities have shuttered due to ongoing civil unrest in the country. (Courtesy photo)
L’union fait la force” or “Unity is strength.” It’s Haiti’s national motto, and one that Jessica Laguerre emphasized on a phone call with Direct Relief in September 2025, Olivia Lewis reported.
Laguerre is the chief operating officer of Hospital Albert Schweitzer in central Haiti, and said the power of the country lies in the collaboration of its people.
As security issues persist in the Caribbean nation, health workers in the country are getting creative to make sure they can still provide care. Sharing information about road closures and distributing smaller, more targeted shipments are part of the mix.
“I think the situation is extremely challenging, but it’s pushing all actors on the ground to see what they can do and address the needs that are constantly shifting,” Laguerre said.
Diva, a Belgian Malinois, trains with her handler, Cory Baldovin, at the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation training center. Dogs and handlers trained at the foundation are critical part of disaster response and have deployed all over the world. (Photo courtesy of SDF)
The National Disaster Search Dog Foundation plays a critical role in training dogs and their handlers to respond to emergencies across California and the world.
Search dogs are often among the first to respond after a disaster, moving through rubble to find survivors. Guided by handlers, the trained animals use their powerful sense of smell to detect human scent. Rescuers depend on them to identify where to dig to save lives and to rule out areas without survivors or human remains, helping direct search and rescue efforts to the most critical locations, Noah Smith reported.
Direct Relief provided the National Search Dog Foundation with $25,000 to support its work to strengthen California’s disaster readiness by training new search dogs and handlers to locate survivors and respond effectively to emergencies.
