The Canadian delegation of Médecins du Monde was founded in 1996 as the representative office of Médecins du Monde Suisse and carried out its first interventions in Haiti.
1996-1999: surgical operations in Haiti, community health project in Grand Goâve and start of a project in Mali
In May 1999, the Board of Directors of Médecins du Monde International officially recognized the autonomy of the Canadian delegation. Dr. Réjean Thomas is the founding president. It is then that the organization begins to recruit its volunteers and raise funds to ensure the realization of its own projects. The Montreal project was launched in 1999 as an initiative for a local mission. The primary objective is to prevent street youth while providing them with access to health care. In the long term, street nurses and our volunteer physicians will also provide care to sex workers, injecting drug users, Aboriginal people and immigrants while facilitating their reintegration into existing health systems.
1999: Start of the Montreal project
2000: Establishment of mobile health teams in Kosovo to compensate for the weakening of the health care system due to the war
001: First emergency response in Afghanistan, MdM will remain there until 2003
The organization makes the fight against HIV / AIDS one of its priorities for intervention; It is launching several projects dedicated to this cause throughout the world. It also strengthens its expertise in emergency response. Between 1999 and 2005, the number of volunteers rose from 8 to almost 50, and the organization's annual budget, from $ 335,000 to more than $ 3.5 million. In 2005, 12 projects were implemented in 11 countries compared to 3 in 1999.
2002: Vietnamese HIV / AIDS prevention intervention begins for sex workers and injecting drug users
2002: Start of the program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV / AIDS in the slum of Cité Soleil in Haiti
December 2002: Emergency mission to Malawi to control the spread of malaria and cholera
April 2003: Emergency mission in Palestine following armed conflicts
April 2003: Emergency mission in Iraq to help refugees
2003: Zimbabwe and Malawi start interventions to fight HIV / AIDS
January 2004: Emergency mission to Iran following an earthquake
September 2004: Emergency medical support for Haitian disaster victims
December 2004: Emergency response in Indonesia and Sri Lanka following the tsunami
2005-2006: Emergency Mission in Southern Sudan
In 2006 , the organization took a break and clarified its orientations and objectives.Emphasis will be placed on development projects in countries closer geographically as the Caribbean and Central America. MdM wishes to raise the awareness of an increasing number of citizens about the humanitarian cause and increase its financial independence.
2006: Launch of new programs in the shantytown of Cité Soleil in Haiti: vaccination, nutritional support, maternal and child health, third stage of the program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV / AIDS and care for AIDS patients
2006: In Montreal, Médecins du Monde is expanding its offer of services to aboriginal people and is interested in immigrants in precarious or irregular situations who wander in the city center
2008: Opening of two new programs: one in Nicaragua for girls and women victims of violence and the other in the Dominican Republic for people living in bateyes and excluded from health care
2008: Partnership with a group of students from the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University (Sexperts) to carry out an awareness and information program in schools on HIV / AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections And through blood and healthy and responsible sexual practice
1999-2009:
Ten years later, a strong organization of the realization
of more than thirty projects carried out in the world
