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| Medical and humanitarian Activities of the Order of Malta
The Order follows its historic rule of "obsequium pauperum" for the needy and the sick and today operates in more than 120 countries, giving medical and social help, through disaster relief in the case of armed conflicts or natural catastrophes, as well as helping young people and providing first aid training. In carrying out these activities, it relies on the involvement of its 12,000 members, as well as approximately 80,000 trained volunteers and 11,000 employees, most of whom are medical personnel. The Order's national organisations (including its Grand Priories, National Associations, relief organisations and foundations) in the countries where they are present, are responsible for carrying out the Order's activities. The permanent institutions - such as hospitals, hospices and old peoples' homes - are either managed directly by the Priories or Associations, or by subordinate bodies.
It also works through other relief organizations:
The Relief Services / Ambulance Corps
 Most of the volunteers work as part of the Order's relief organisations or ambulance corps. They perform first aid, disaster relief and social services. In addition, extensive work with the young is being carried out by the relief organisations, with 30 countries setting up similar organisations. Since the foundation of the ambulance corps in Ireland more than 60 years ago, in 1938, the operation of relief services has developed into one of the Order's most important activities. The foundation and development of relief services has also been very successful in Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Thus, Christian social commitment is carried out with an organised approach, as part of a community with social responsibility and the vitality and appeal of the Order's mission is demonstrated in a new way.
Hospitals, Medical Centres and Medical Programmes
 Most of the Order's hospitals are situated in Europe, in particular, in Germany, France, Belgium, England and Italy, with the majority being general hospitals. The Order's hospital in Rome is specialised in neurological treatment and rehabilitation. The hospitals in England and Belgium, as well as some in Germany, have special units for the treatment of the terminally ill, with appropriate palliative specialists. Similar special units work in Argentina, Australia, Italy, South Africa and the USA. The combination of full care and specially trained volunteers, in an environment which operates according to Catholic ethics, is an important part of the Order's medical involvement.
As well as the medical centres and the hospitals it runs in France, the French Association runs hospitals and dispensaries in Benin, Senegal and Togo. As a joint activity of the whole Order, a maternity hospital is being run in Bethlehem, Palestine, under the operational responsibilities of the French Association. Since 1990, more than 36,000 babies have been born there. In Senegal and Cambodia the Order runs special hospitals for leprosy sufferers.
For a long time leprosy relief has been one of the main activities of the Order's work in the Third World. With its special organisation, the Comite International de l'Ordre de Malte (CIOMAL), based in Geneva and founded specifically for this purpose, the Order takes care of the national leprosy programme in Cambodia and assists in leprosy relief in other countries, especially in Brazil. Recently CIOMAL extended its programmes to include the treatment of pregnant women with HIV/AIDS, in order to prevent infection between mother and child. One project in this field is showing significant results in Argentina.
The Order also operates many medical centres around the world. In Italy there are specialised institutions for the care of diabetics. There is a similar institution in Prague, the Czech Republic, for children. Most of the Order's dispensaries are in Lebanon and El Salvador. There are also medical centres in Poland, Hungary, the USA, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Peru and South Africa. Furthermore, in developing countries, many hospitals, medical centres and dispensaries are supported - and at times directed - by the Order. In the district of the Great Lakes in Africa, as well as in Kerala, India, the Order is supporting the setting up of basic public health services.
The French Association supports medical institutions in a great number of countries in West Africa and Madagascar. An important contribution is the system for the collection and sorting of medicines, which was set up by the Order in France, and which is approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
On many occasions, the Order, through the German relief service, has taken over the medical care of UN peace missions (Central America, Kuwait, East Timor, Balkans).
Institutions for Disabled People and Disabled Relief Service.
 In France the Order maintains five highly specialised medical centres for the seriously disabled. There are also centres for the disabled in Hungary, Ecuador and Lebanon. In addition, the Order carries out many other activities for disabled people, including running yearly pilgrimages to Lourdes and to other pilgrimage sites, organising holiday camps for disabled youngsters and transport services for the sick, especially in Germany and Scotland.
Institutions and Relief for Old People
Of increasing significance are the activities of relief for the elderly. The Order directs numerous specialised centres for old people in England, Germany, Spain, Austria, the USA, Chile and Mexico. In various countries there is a variety of services to make life at home easier for old people. This includes providing meals on wheels, transport services, visiting services, shopping help and the operation of emergency call systems.
Relief for Children and Adolescents
 In Brazil, Mexico and Chile, the Order devotes its activities to a variety of programmes of care for children who live in favellas (slum dwellings). In Sao Paolo, the Order has run a model institution with extensive medical, social and educational help for many years, as well as special programmes for the training of single mothers. Our Association in Mexico runs a school with boarding facilities. In Porto, Portugal, there is a home for young girls who have social difficulties. Traditional kindergardens operate in Brazil, Germany, Italy and South Africa. Programmes for adolescents with social problems are also being set up in Germany.
Another important area is the youth work in the Order's relief services, which has founded special youth groups in which children and adolescents are taught First Aid, with an appropriate programme according to age. They are also being trained to practise social responsibility.
Homeless People and Drug Addicts
The Order runs institutions for the homeless in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Italy and the USA.
In Germany and Portugal the Order is involved with drug addicts, with the Association in Portugal running a centre for the rehabilitation of drug addicts.
Humanitarian Emergency Relief
Humanitarian relief for the victims of natural disasters or armed conflicts is one of the Order's traditional tasks. It was taken up again in the mid nineteenth century and carried out during the First and Second World Wars. In the second half of the last century these commitments increased. Among the main relief actions were: relief for refugees during the Hungarian crisis in 1956; setting up and running a field hospital during the Vietnam war; relief service in Thailand over many years; medical assistance during the civil wars in Lebanon and El Salvador; refugee relief during the Kurd crisis in Afghanistan; refugee relief in the Great Lakes district of Africa; various extensive actions during the Balkan crisis (1999); earthquake relief in Friuli, Italy, in the late 1970s, in Armenia in 1989, in Italy in 1997, in Columbia and Turkey in 1999, in El Salvador in 2000, in India in 2001; repeated flood and hurricane catastrophe relief in the Ukraine, Hungary and Romania, and in Honduras in 1998, in Poland in 1999 and in Mozambique in 2000 and 2001. Most recent operations have taken place in the town of Goma in the Congo after a volcanic eruption and in 2002 in the Czech Republic after serious flooding during a disastrous summer.
Malteser International, the Order’s worldwide relief service, works in the front line in natural disasters and armed conflicts.
The Order's neutrality and its impartial and non-political nature make relief actions possible in situations where access by other organisations is difficult. The Order's diplomatic representatives give much valued support in the countries concerned.
Where it is sensible and possible, the Order also carries out reconstruction and rehabilitation relief work which is the stage which follows the acute phase of relief work. In the Balkans, these activities have been extensive and run in close co-operation with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Other similar actions have been carried out in Mozambique, El Salvador and India, and currently in the African countries: Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, the Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
Refugees
One of the Order's traditional tasks is to help refugees and those seeking asylum - the Order currently runs long-term institutions and programmes in Germany and Thailand. However, support for short-term activities, depending on the predicament, is very often provided.
The Financing of the Order's Activities
Because of the exceptional diversity and variability of each country, region and activity in which the Order is involved, the question as to how the Order's activities are financed is difficult to answer fully and clearly.
Only in Italy and Austria do the Order's long-standing interests in property contribute towards the financing of the administrative expenses. Apart from these, the Order - contrary to various speculative opinions - does not have noteworthy property apart from the possession of its own medical and social institutions.
Fund-raising in the broadest sense is therefore a crucial activity for building up and assuring the continuance of the Order's activities.
Many medical and social institutions and programmes are included in, and are substantially maintained by, national health and social systems, especially in Western and Southern Europe. Donations from members and non-members also contribute to the financing of many programmes, sometimes decisively. The activities in developing countries are financed by the Order's Grand Priories and National Associations, for example, in Germany, France and the USA, and by contributions from the EU or the UN, from national governments, private donations and donations from foundations. Similar procedures apply to international emergency relief: in France and Germany especially, hundreds of thousands of private donors contribute to the financing of these projects. Whereas the co-financing of government and non-government authorities and large foundations is very often bound to very precisely defined and restricted conditions and can therefore only be used for purposes which are already established, the private donations from members and other private persons allow greater flexibility for the Order's entities to react quickly and effectively to new and changing needs.
All the Order's Associations, works, foundations, hospitals, dispensaries, etc. are subject to a regular external audit, so that the orderliness of the financial administration is controlled by professionals, according to their national law and practice. In addition to these local controls, all the entities of the Order are also subject to controls by the Order's Board of Auditors.
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