Many times over the year, we’re all approached for contributions in some way or another. Occasionally, a request comes along that is very compelling — one that feels like it’s just “the right thing to do.”

The U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers and other health-care product suppliers are usually at the very top of everyone’s donation request list. Many companies and individuals in our industry are extremely generous with product donations for people in need.

I believe it’s important to stepback and take a look at all the good our industry does in the USA and around the world. The story that follows is just one example of the quiet heroism that takes place in our industry — heroism that we rarely hear about.

This past November, I was recruited to help the Green Tara Foundation of Albuquerque, N.M. (www.green-tara.org) by serving as a member of a medical mission that would travel to help “stateless” Tibetans in the refugee and settlement camps located in Nepal.

I was contacted by a former classmate from Georgetown, a retired Ph.D. nursing professor who was going to train the health-care workers at a refugee camp’s clinic. We were traveling with two doctors, two volunteers and Green Tara’s founder, Ms. Gerry Laidlaw, who personally has been helping on an annual basis in Nepal for over 15 years.

For this mission, medicine and medical supplies were part of the donations we would hand carry, along with clothing and cash for student scholarships. My first task was to secure donations of specific prescription products that the doctors knew were critical in treating the Tibetan refugees, and which would help restock the usually bare clinic shelves. Nepal cannot afford to support these refugee camps, so they rely on donations from the U.S. and E.U.

Back in September 2006, while at the IFPW General Membership Meeting in San Francisco, I met with several major pharmaceutical manufacturers whose products were high on the needed list. Upon hearing about the project, they were very receptive. In the case of J&J’s Janssen/Ortho-McNeil division managers who were present, commitment was immediate. Others began the approval process to secure needed products in their companies’ lines.

A few weeks later at the HDMA Annual Leadership Conference in Orlando, I contacted several other companies, and they agreed to participate. The quantities of products needed were not large, but even so, the donation process can be very complex and time-consuming. It was also at this conference that I learned of a program to support medical missions through the HDMA’s charity of choice, AmeriCares (www.AmeriCares.org).

AmeriCares has been awarded a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator for five consecutive years. (The AmeriCares organization boasts total operating expenses of less than 2 percent!) As the largest, in-kind recipient of medicines and medical supplies, AmeriCares has both the program history and strategic partnerships with many U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

In addition to the organization’s international scope in providing aid around the world, AmeriCares also serves the small, committed community of medical doctors doing medical mission trips. Through these partnerships, they were able to provide Green Tara the medicines and medical supplies — such as blood-pressure cuffs and stethoscopes — which were really needed in the eight Tibetan camps we were visiting.

 must recognize those companies for their generosity in supporting this medical mission through product donations via AmeriCares to the Green Tara Foundation. In addition to the Johnson & Johnson companies, they included AmerisourceBergen, Apotex, BD (Becton Dickinson & Company), Sandoz and Welch-Allyn.

It is helpful to understand some background about the region we were visiting. When the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1959, many Tibetans fled to Nepal, walking for 10 to 14 days through snow-covered passes at an elevation of 18,000 feet in the Himalaya Mountains.

The Dalai Lama had fled to Dharamsala, India, to set up a government in exile. Nepal set up refugee camps, as did India. Eventually, the Dalai Lama ordered his fighters (Kampas) to put down their arms. These men then retreated to Nepal where they still live. There are now more than 800 of these people, including families, in the Jampaling settlement near Pokara, in the Annapurna area of north central Nepal.

Jampaling is the largest of the Tibetan settlements, which the Nepalese government requires to be self-supporting. These Buddhist settlers farm, tend cattle and make beautiful wool carpets. There is little in terms of purified water or central heating. Each family lives in one room, in buildings constructed of mud brick and stone. However, they do have very good schools (kindergarten through seventh grade) where the children all speak English as well as Nepali. And there are camp clinics for all.

In total, we spent 18 days in Nepal. At first, we were in the capital city of Kathmandu and the surrounding areas. We visited a high school (grades 8-12) with 435 Tibetan students. Students board for 11 months of the year. The Green Tara Foundation supports many of the promising young people with scholarships of about $700 a year each to cover room, board, travel, books and clothing.

The children do chores at the school every day. They are each responsible for keeping their uniforms, clothing, bedding and group dorm rooms clean. Some go on to a university in India and then return to teach in their camps in Nepal. This year, Green Tara donated about $15,000 toward scholarships for children to go on to high schools and college, plus small stipends for the especially poor families.

There are two major Tibetan-run foundations in Nepal. They are the Snow Lion Foundation and the Lodrik Welfare Fund. Snow Lion runs a large reception center that houses up to 1,000 Tibetan refugees who are newly arrived from across the Himalayas.

These “undocumented” people are not allowed to stay in Nepal. After getting health-care screenings and transit documents, they must move on to India where there are camps available. On this trip, Green Tara supplied hundreds of new, heavy blankets for the center. These refugees literally bring everything they own and can carry in a backpack. They wait up to two months in the reception center before they are allowed to travel into India. Meanwhile, they have a bed in a dorm and receive two meals a day.

The center was not full when we visited. However, we did meet a 72-year-old man who had hiked for 18 days through the high, snow-covered passes to reach freedom in Nepal. Refugees typically are harassed by the Chinese border guards who steal their meager possessions.

And, we met small, smiling children whose parents had paid guides to bring them to Kathmandu, and who are now orphans in an unfamiliar place. Many teens were in classes learning English while they awaited their transit documents. Despite their privations and uncertain future, they were just typical, happy teenage kids, hanging out.

In the reception center infirmary, we met an old monk with emphysema and a young woman who lost several of her toes to frostbite while crossing the mountains. There also were some children there — including one who broke a leg on her escape over the mountains. The small infirmary had only a very limited amount of basic supplies. The patients were all housed in the same room, regardless of illness. Our donations were very happily received by the reception center administrators.

In addition to the camps, schools and foundation visits, we did have a chance to go sightseeing in both the Annapurna and the Himalaya mountains. It’s a beautiful country of extreme contrasts.

The poverty is endemic. The average Nepali lives on less than $1 per day. However, everyone is working, and the uniformed Nepali children are all in school. The economy is busy. And the beauty of the mountains and countryside is amazing.

I’m edified by these Tibetans and the Nepalis as well. Everyday life is a struggle there, yet they are a smiling, cheerful, gentle, and welcoming people. They are working hard to be self-sufficient. They know education is the key and they are focused on it.

These kind people also know that they have friends in America. There are people who regularly visit with help of many kinds. And, thanks to the Green Tara team, the Tibetan health-care workers now know how to use the medicines donated by our many supporters at AmeriCares and those pharmaceutical company heroes who “made it happen” for us.

Whether retired, old Kampas fighters, young students needing scholarships to high school, health-care workers and their patients in infirmaries, or just weavers in the camps, they all have benefited from the generosity made possible by the Green Tara Foundation and all the health-care companies mentioned earlier. Thanks!

The author can be reached at mchugh6@aol.com for more information or questions.

Bob McHugh’s spectacular photo of Machapuchare — “Fish Tail” — summit in the Annapurna range. Time for some sightseeing was a bonus enjoyed by the mission’s team.

Nepal medical mission. Author McHugh is shownwearing the white shirt with AmeriCare design.

Jampaling is the largest of the Tibetan settlements, which the Nepalese government requires to be self-supporting.

A fourth grade class in a settlement school. The children speak both Nepali and English, and the schoolchildren’s handwriting in English is excellent, McHugh reports.

A view showing the region’s austere living conditions.

A group gathered to receive training in use of the donated supplies. Author McHugh, wearing his AmeriCares shirt, is among them.

Two local siblings, ages 7 and 5

Meager supplies in an infirmary’s pharmacy.

A patient in an infirmary recovering from an ailment. Basic medical supplies are very limited.

Some local women engaged in weaving. Beautiful wool carpets are among the products they create.

A group of happy local teens, just hanging out, being teenagers.

A group of local men hear a presentation about the donated items and assistance brought in by the Green Tara team.

A youngster gives a bath to his “Tigger.”

Members of the Green Tara team show the “thank you” cards they sent from Nepal to the companies that provided donations. Author Bob McHugh is at left.