Richmond Liberal MP Raymond Chan is traveling to his home country of China this week to bring relief to earthquake victims.

Two physicians with the Ice Breaking Care Society, Dr. Robert Chan, an expert on infectious diseases and Dr. Kan Li, a Toronto emergency room physician, will be accompanying him. They will be traveling to Sifong, to the city of Deyand in Sichua, which is one of the regions hardest hit by the earthquake.

Chan and the two doctors are carrying seven emergency Physician Travel Packs (PTPs) from Health Partners International of Canada with them. The PTP is a portable medical kit, each one containing a broad assortment of basic medicine and medical supplies, specially adapted for mobile medical clinics and emergency health care.

"I want to do something practical and meaningful for the victims of this disaster. I can’t think of anything better than bringing health care to their doorstep," said Chan in a statement yesterday.

John Kelsall, president of HPIC, says that Canadian healthcare companies - which donate the medicines and medical supplies in the PTPs and other shipments of medical aid - have responded very generously to the call for help or the recent crises in China and Myanmar.

"It takes significant donations from Canadian healthcare companies and the personal involvement of people like the Hon. Raymond Chan, Dr. Chan and Dr. Li to make this kind of humanitarian mission possible," he says. "HPIC is honoured to work with these partners."

Chan’s team is the second group carrying PTPs to the earthquake zone.

Three of the packs went into China just days after the disaster struck. According to Kelsall, dozens more are being readied for these and other partners who have the means of getting help directly to the people who need it.

Since 1990, HPIC has provided more than $250 million in medical aid to 116 countries.