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This paper focuses on finding a model to optimize the provision for international emergency help, for emergencies caused by natural or man-made disasters. Nowadays, natural and man-made disasters occur more often than before, possibly, due to climate change, industrial activity, urbanization and migration of people. The national institutions for protection and rescue, in many cases, when the emergency situation is declared, cannot often cope and need help. The international organizations have recognized needs to develop mechanisms, which can be used to help affected countries. Examples are European mechanisms for civil protection and numerous guidelines from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). If the affected country cannot solve the problems and minimize risks for their citizens, material and cultural heritage, Governments send an official request to International Organizations, to obtain different kinds of international help as quickly as possible. However, the problems can appear with costs and other needed resources for providing international help, in terms of country's distance which could provide help or duplication of resources that should be available. Currently, International Organizations do not have the documents, guidelines or software to be used for an emergency, when they have to make optimal decisions, concerning which country will provide help. This can be recognized as a main research gap, which is addressed by this paper. This paper uses operational research, to develop an adjusted transportation model, for optimizing the provision of international help in emergency situations. The main goal of this paper is to find useful solutions for those responsible for emergency management in making decisions for providing help to affected countries. Moreover, we aim to develop a model that will facilitate the appropriate disposition of human and material resources to an affected country in experiencing a disaster. The applied method involves an application of an adjusted transportation model for the case study, based on a real emergency situation during the May floods of 2014, in the Republic of Serbia. Having this in mind, the authors try to provide general results and a model, with a recommendation of how the model can be applied to any emergency situation in the world. The applicability is obvious for the activities of international organizations responsible for emergency management.