Over the past decade, humanitarian need has skyrocketed as the nations of the world find themselves increasingly at odds with each other in the face of resource depletion and disparity. In 2014, the Syrian civil war exploded outside of border constraints, affecting Iraq and all of the Middle East.

In the face of this conflict, many former residents of the region returned to the land they cherished. Our co-founder John Murphy was one of the few who stepped forward to engage with the people at risk. For two years, he used his skills as a folklorist to engage with and educate local villages in ways that they could solve the problems of a landscape lost to war.

While seeking medical training in the United States, he crossed paths with Joel Walker, a recently retired Navy Corpsman who was teaching emergency medicine courses. While studying with Joel, he and two other emergency medicine instructors and students began to foster an idea: How can we make the emergency and general  medical knowledge so readily present in the first world available to the endangered communities who need it most?

Since 2016, we have been using the war torn lands of the Middle East as an experimental classroom. Working with cultural liaisons to guide teams into austere areas that are considered too challenging for primary supporters, we created the Austere Medical Initiative. The idea of this initiative is to bring knowledge to the places it is most often denied, yet in the most grievous need.

Continuing in the Middle East, we are now seeking to expand our regions to all points of the globe. AMI is not simply a service, but an idea to be propagated and used by others to aid the people they love dearly. Please contact us if you would like to help us go further.

AMI is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) tax exempt non-profit organization. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.