Bon Secours Health System’s Global Outreach Helps Victims Of Natural Disasters

Marriottsville, Maryland, January 22, 2008 --  Bon Secours Health System as part of its Global Ministry is committed to helping people in need wherever they may be in the struggle to create a more humane world. In the last three years, for example, the health system has donated over $1.1 million in disaster relief to help people both in the United States and around the world.

“Our global outreach is an integral part of who we are. The Sisters of Bon Secours came to the United States in 1881 to give “Good Help to Those in Need” and today the Bon Secours Health System with its over 16,000 employees has kept that tradition alive wherever help is needed,” says Rich Statuto, president and CEO of Bon Secours Health System.

Most recently, working through Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Bon Secours Health System donated $50,000 to relief efforts in Bangladesh where over 3,200 people died and over 40,000 were injured in recent cyclones. Approximately 8.5 million residents were affected and 564,000 homes were destroyed, with another 855,200 damaged. Two million acres of crops were wiped out and 1.25 million livestock were killed. The health system’s $50,000 will go toward CRS Bangladesh’s $1.5 million goal for public and private donations to support longer-term recovery efforts to enable families to regain their livelihoods and become self sufficient again.

2007 was a year of several major disasters worldwide, and BSHSI contributed $75,000 to help victims of the earthquakes in Peru where the Sisters of Bon Secours have a community. The earthquake resulted in 519 dead, 1,366 injured, and over 52,000 homes destroyed with approximately 23,000 more damaged.

It is estimated that the flooding and monsoons in South Asia affected 20 to 30 million people with over 2,000 deaths reported. Damage estimates in India alone are said to be upwards of $888 million. Bon Secours Health System contributed $75,000 through CRS and $50,000 through the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) towards disaster relief efforts in this part of the world.

Other relief efforts to which both the health system and its employees as individuals contributed in 2006 included the Philippines mudslide where Bon Secours gave $35,000 through CRS, and in 2005 the South Asia earthquake where the health system and its employees donated $126,397. The South Asia earthquake left over 74,500 dead, over 106,000 injured, and approximately 3.3 million people homeless – numbers that are almost too staggering to comprehend. In 2005, Bon Secours also contributed $125,325 in relief efforts through CMMB to the people of Central America after Hurricane Stan caused almost $2 billion worth of damage, cost nearly 2,000 lives, and left over 197,000 homeless.

One of the health system’s largest relief efforts was in 2005 in the United States following Hurricane Katrina when Bon Secours donated $358,308. Of this amount, $125,000 was contributed to CRS, $125,000 to the Red Cross, and $108,288 was directly contributed from Bon Secours employees to CRS and the Red Cross. Hurricane Katrina caused 1,836 confirmed deaths, displaced 1.5 million people, and triggered $81.6 billion in damages.

One of Bon Secours Health System’s earlier relief efforts was in early 2005 for victims of the December 26, 2004, tsunami in Southeast Asia. The health system gave $250,000 through CRS and matched the employees’ $22,935 gift to CRS, for a total of $294,071. Death tolls were reportedly 184,168, with 45,752 missing and nearly two million people displaced.

“For Bon Secours Health System, participating in the struggle for a more humane world is not an option – it is an integral part of spreading the Gospel – it is a requirement. As a member of the Catholic health ministry, we are called to creatively and collaboratively provide health care and human services to those in need. To those to whom much is given, much is expected. We feel fortunate that we have the resources to be able to play even a small part in relief efforts around the globe and help those whose lives have been devastated by natural disasters start on the road to recovery,” says Bon Secours Health System Chairperson of the Board, Sr. Patricia Eck, CBS.

Bon Secours Health System, headquartered in Marriottsville, Maryland, a $2.4 billion not-for-profit Catholic health system, owns, manages, or joint ventures 18 acute-care hospitals, one psychiatric hospital, five nursing care facilities, five assisted living facilities, and several home care and hospice programs. Bon Secours’ more than 16,000 caregivers help people in 10 communities in seven states, primarily on the East Coast.