[center][h1]The Wasteland Aid Society[/h1][/center]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ICl9K6P.png[/img][/center]

[hider=Territory][b]Territory:[/b]

	The Wasteland Aid Society controls no formal territory. Instead, they maintain operations out of local clinics, schools, and research facilities of varying size. They are a common sight in New York, New Jersey, New England up through Maine, and Southeast Canada. They are known to have people as far south as the Capital Wasteland, but there are no significant facilities there. The Aid Society’s headquarters and primary organizational center is located at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, New York City.[/hider]

[hider=History]

[b]History:[/b]

	The Wasteland Aid Society traces its origins back to the staff on duty at Bellevue Hospital during the Great War. When the bombs fell, the doctors and nurses of the hospital continued to treat patients even as casualties mounted. Bolstered and defended by the last remnants of a New York Army National Guard battalion, Bellevue Hospital became the center for medical treatment in the days and weeks following the war. Eventually, however, supplies ran out and staff abandoned the city to flee in droves. The Army’s security fell apart, and the city fell into chaos as looting and violence became rampant.

	A small core of staff remained in the campus, setting to work in an attempt to continue to maintain medical services after the apocalypse. The director of Bellevue, Doctor Karl Sanders, remained the manager of this cause until his death in 2094. It was during his tenure that the seeds of the Wasteland Aid Society were planted as a way to ensure the suffering of the Great War was alleviated. Over the decades, Bellevue Hospital’s sprawling campus gained a reputation as a center for medical care. Raider gangs and tribals from the region all knew of the “shamans and medicine men” at the center and largely refrained from attacking or looting it.

	Eventually, as New York formed the neighborhood tribes that would later be unified into its city government in 2232, Bellevue Hospital expanded its operations to other clinics in the city. The formal establishment of the Wasteland Aid Society, so named to reflect its new role in the ruins of the world, came in 2186. Generations of doctors, teachers, and scientists that had been trained at Bellevue to live in their societies across the city organized under the banner of the caduceus: an old world symbol of medicine and knowledge. Clinics and schools were brought in under the central organization and standards of care and education were established to ensure doctors and teachers provided adequate services.

	The Aid Society was one of the first factions that allied itself with New York City upon its creation in 2234. They signed a charter with the city government providing it with medical and educational support so long as the city agreed to support its mission of providing aid beyond the city limits. The Wasteland Aid Society and Bellevue Hospital were not officially incorporated into New York’s Medicine Division or Education Division, but they maintain a close working relationship and have tight connections with the city government. Many MedDiv hospitals are staffed by government healthcare providers trained almost entirely by Bellevue’s medical school.

	Eventually, with the New York government’s backing, the Wasteland Aid Society extended beyond the city and began to establish operations in other wasteland towns. These clinics faced harsh terrain, logistical challenges, and communication issues, but have survived to multiply and provide medical and educational services in most major population centers and trading towns. While New York remains their center of operations, robust Aid Society hospitals and schools have been established in major cities like Ronto and Boston. The Wasteland Aid Society is a vital conduit that helps transmit research breakthroughs, medical knowledge, and historical recordkeeping to these factions in an informal way that cuts out biased politicians and diplomats.

	The Aid Society is a currently led at the top by Doctor Mike Goethals, an expert in emergency trauma who has honed his skills treating the victims of constant warfare in the wasteland. He is an engaged and skilled leader who knows that his organization is critical to helping the wasteland recover.

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[hider=Pressing Issues]

	[b]Pressing Issues:[/b]

	The Aid Society faces the supply and financial issues that any similar charitable organization does. Their requirements to supply far-flung clinics and schools in remote wasteland towns often require deals with independent caravans and trade companies. Similarly, communication with and management of these clinics and schools is difficult at best. The Aid Society also faces friction with local governments who oppose intrusions upon their autonomy, an uneducated populace who sometimes denounce the physicians and teachers as “witches” and “bad luck”, and opportunistic attacks by raiders. Protecting themselves requires payments to local mercenaries, who often are just as unreliable and extortionist as the raiders themselves.

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