This is part of a series introducing readers to individuals who are passionate about our Mid-Valley community.
Ron Post and his late wife were watching news coverage 45 years ago of Cambodian refugees arriving to Thailand after escaping the Khmer Rouge “Killing Fields,” the sites of some 2 million deaths from starvation, work exhaustion and execution.
Post remembers seeing the emaciated body of a teenage girl then looking over at his own teenage daughter and feeling heart-stricken. He felt called to do something.
“I believe God put it in my heart that I was to raise up a medical team, and I was to help them,” said Post.
Within two weeks, Post, a Dallas-based business owner with no medical background, had raised $250,000 and enlisted 28 volunteers who set off to Thailand to help at a refugee camp.
This was the beginning of Medical Teams International, which now serves about 3 million refugees at eight different camps. Medical Teams also has 13 mobile dental clinics that see about 25,000 people every year.