Through IEMH Leadership Forums held worldwide, we are creating strong collaborations between emergency medical personnel and regional stakeholders — civil authorities and leaders in medicine and government. These highly interactive forums are designed to:

• Promote collegial relationships, understanding and peace

• Exchange ideas to prepare for individual responses or large-scale disasters

• Sort through regional political, social and economic realities

• Make rapid improvements to local response systems that can be sustained without long-term need for support

• Identify low-cost technologies that can be easily learned and maintained

• Make the best of resources at hand

• Build community confidence and hope