Inter Care was born in 1974 out of a growing awareness of an injustice. For some years, two GPs, Drs. David Rosenberg and Patricia O'Keefe, then working in Leicester, had been aware that each year thousands of tons of high quality in-date surplus medicines were being incinerated in the UK. At the same time, they knew from missionary friends that there were acute shortages of these very medicines in rural Africa. They saw this as unjust and decided to do something about it.

For a long time, they and colleagues had been collecting and sorting such medicines – some unopened packets returned by patients to their doctors, some manufacturers’ over-runs – but the problem was to find a safe way to deliver them to the people who really needed them: the poor in the rural areas.

During his many visits to Africa in the early 1970s, Dr. David realised that the medical work of the missionaries was being scaled down, but to his astonishment he discovered - first in Uganda but later in many other countries - that there were thousands of African Catholic nuns, in African Congregations, who as trained nurses were running hundreds of small medical units out in the ‘bush’ where they were most needed. They were, of course, desperately short of resources, and the Rosenbergs decided to channel their supplies through the Sisters, knowing that this would maximise the help to the poorest and minimise the possibility of corrupt use of the supplies.

The relationship with these African Congregations has grown to be a characteristic of Inter Care, but its help is not restricted to Catholic units. Inter Care supplies now go regularly to over 100 units, some run by Anglicans, some by Evangelicals and some by Muslims. The name they give to their faith is not what matters. What matters is that they have faith and integrity. The guiding principles have always been that any medicines sent are matched to requested needs at a given medical unit and that the units chosen for help should be in poor areas (this usually means rural ones). Inter Care’s help is given at regular intervals on a continuing basis as long as the needs of the unit persist.

You can find out more about Inter Care in our Annual Reports and Inter Care Visit Reports

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