PACANGEL 17 delivers humanitarian assistance, capability building in PH

From the Philippine Information Agency (Jul 6): PACANGEL 17 delivers humanitarian assistance, capability building in PH

Over the course of ten days, more than 100 active duty United States (US) Air Force, Army, Navy, Nevada Air National Guard, and five other Pacific nations delivered humanitarian assistance and performed subject matter expert exchanges with their partners in the Philippines during the Pacific Angel (PACANGEL) 2017.

PACANGEL team members from the Philippines, US, Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Australia worked in conjunction with local non-governmental organizations to conduct subject matter expert exchanges, complete electrical, plumbing and infrastructure repair projects, and provide dental, optometric, pediatric and general health care to the people of Northern Cebu Province.

“It has been an honor being here in the Philippines and working with the community and our multi-lateral partners,” said Lt. Col. Edward Khim, PACANGEL Philippines mission commander.  “Not only were we able to provide structural repairs at seven different sites, but our doctors saw a record-breaking number of patients.  At the end of the day though, it’s not about the numbers, it’s about building partnerships and learning from each other,” he emphasized.

PACANGEL doctors and technicians were able to cater more than 6,000 patients throughout the five days of health services outreach.

While PACANGEL events in the Philippines are now complete, Pacific Angel 2017 will continue in three other locations, namely, Tam Ky, Quang Nam Province, Vietnam; Northern and Western Divisions, Fiji; and Gorkha, Nepal.

Operation Pacific Angel is a recurring joint humanitarian assistance mission sponsored by US Pacific Command (USPACOM) designed to bring humanitarian civic assistance (HCA) and civil-military operations (CMO) to areas in need in the Pacific region. It is conducted in locations throughout the Pacific theater to support the U.S. military charter of capacity building in partner nations. The operations contain elements of all four branches of the Department of Defense, including active duty,National Guard, and reserve members.

The key difference between this mission and previous missions is that these missions are focused on capacity building in the host nation. The mission objective is to provide assistance to an area, and leave behind a capability for the host nation doctors to continue to provide the services.

http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/2761499244014/pacangel-17-delivers-humanitarian-assistance-capability-building-in-ph