Algeria has experienced a number of destructive earthquakes, most notably the 1980 El Asnam (Chlef), 1989 Tipasa-Chenoua, and 2003 Zemmouri-Boumerdes earthquakes.  Such earthquakes cause a large number of fatalities and casualties, damage or destroy a large number of buildings, and cause extensive damage to lifelines such as roads, railroads, port facilities, pipelines, water and wastewater infrastructure, electrical power and telecommunications networks, etc., resulting in substantial social and economic losses.

Coordinated by AAF a number of scientists, engineers, and other professionals established in the United States, on one side, and their counterparts at the “Centre de Développement des Technologies Avancées” (CDTA; https://www.cdta.dz), based in Algeria, have agreed to work together and develop a long term sustainable partnership.  The goal of this AAF-CDTA partnership is “To launch, develop, promote and sustain scientific and technological collaborations between institutions in the USA and the CDTA in Algeria”.

In the past three years, the AAF’s Health group had direct contact with its counterparts in Algeria several times, including a short presentation to the previous minister of Health during his visit in Washington DC as well as in Algeria in December 2011 and 2012, then in July 2012.

During a workshop held in Algiers in December 2-3, 2010, the Health Group of the Algerian American Foundation (AAF) was asked to provide the Direction Générale de la Recherche Scientifique et du Développement Technologique (DGRSDT) with a report that will potentially identify areas of bilateral collaboration in the large and fast expanding field of Oncology in the world and, most importantly, in Algeria. In view of the planning by the Ministry of Health to create new regional Cancer Centers, the Cancer Group of the AAF prepared a white paper on a comprehensive National Research Cancer Center (NRCC) .