hometown associations have subsequently become involved in funding hospitals schools and public infrastructure a role analogous to that of many ngos such as medecins sans frontieres and the red cross which have worked with these hometown associations at the same time mobile phones and internet access funded by such associations are opening up a new virtual realm of diagnosis and healing between continents such caravans and ambulances serve equity by serving people who do not have kin in europe who can send remittances to cover medical costs but they are there only a short time