As members of the global community, we intend to facilitate the responsible interchange of knowledge, provide sustainable collaborative international educational and service provision projects, and create a forum for experts and networking in the area of international emergency medicine. Our main focus is on education as a means for capacity-building and sustainable development. Our ultimate goal is to improve the quality of health for members of the global community regardless of their race, gender, religion, or socioeconomic status.

A key principle motivating this project is the need for universal education. All human beings should have access to education regardless of their country of origin, ethnicity, religion, economic status, or gender. Moreover, educational programs must consider and respect the cultural milieu and available resources of the learners. We also recognize that we, as practicing physicians in North America, have much to learn from our colleagues in under-resourced areas of the world.

"The tasks entailed in the development of a global society call for levels of capacity far beyond anything the human race has so far been able to muster. Reaching these levels will require an enormous expansion in access to knowledge, on the part of individuals and social organizations alike. Universal education will be an indispensable contributor to this process of capacity building, but the effort will succeed only as human affairs are so reorganized as to enable both individuals and groups in every sector of society to acquire knowledge and apply it to the shaping of human affairs." 1

Our development programs should aim to empower the recipients and increase their capacity such that they become progressively less dependent over time. Education can be an effective tool for capacity building.

Development is not a product to be delivered by the "developed" to the "underdeveloped." Rather, it is a process in which individuals and communities in all parts of the world, regardless of the degree of their material prosperity, become the principal actors in defining, analyzing, and solving their own problems. While concrete action in any project should be directed towards visible improvement of some aspect of life, the success of a development initiative is ultimately measured by its impact on the capacity of a community to address development issues at increasingly higher levels of complexity and effectiveness. 2

We recognize the need for a multidisciplinary approach to international health education. Physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, midwives, and pre-hospital health care providers all play important roles in providing health care. Our educational programs will aim to develop human resources at all levels of the health care team.

Other needs such as potable water, sustainable crops, shelter, security, immunizations, and economic growth are all important to population survival and life quality. We recognize that health education cannot alone solve all of these problems. We will try to build bridges and collaborate with other experts to integrate efforts across various fields of socioeconomic development.

The integration of efforts across various fields, such as health, education, agriculture, and environmental preservation, is essential for real progress in a region. Such integration can be achieved when simple grassroots initiatives evolve to more stable and complex stages of operation. 2

"It is in the context of raising the level of human capacity through the expansion of knowledge at all levels that the economic issues facing humankind need to be addressed. As the experience of recent decades has demonstrated, material benefits and endeavors cannot be regarded as ends in themselves. Their value consists not only in providing for humanity's basic needs in housing, food, health care, and the like, but in extending the reach of human abilities. The most important role that economic efforts must play in development lies, therefore, in equipping people and institutions with the means through which they can achieve the real purpose of development: that is, laying foundations for a new social order that can cultivate the limitless potentialities latent in human consciousness."1

While IEMEA is inspired by principles of the Bahai Faith, it is not a religious organization but one that serves all humanity without discrimination. IEMEA volunteers come from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.

References:

1. The Prosperity of Humankind, A statement prepared by the Bahá'í International Community Office of Public Information, Haifa, first distributed at the United Nations World Summit on Social Development, Copenhagen, Denmark. 3 March 1995). http://bahai-library.com/published.uhj/prosperity.humankind.html
2. Processes of Development: The Bahá'í Approach. http://www.bahai.org/article-1-8-1-2.html.