Humanitarian

On World Humanitarian Day, Remember Local Health Workers

Friday, August 19, 2016
Honoring ‪#‎WorldHumanitarianDay‬, we are reminded that the majority of the humanitarian ‎work force‬ is comprised of local workers, who face tremendous risks when providing assistance. Investments in the humanitarian system, including health workers, should reflect this reality in order to be more cost-effective.

Statement Delivered at World Health Assembly in Response to WHO's Global Vaccine Action Plan

Wednesday, May 20, 2015
At the 68th World Health Assembly in Geneva this week,IntraHealth International delivered a statement on behalf IntraHealth as well as 34 other organizations who are affiliated with the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition. The statement was made in response to WHO's Global Vaccine Action Plan.

Saudi Coalition Airstrikes and the Destruction of Hospitals

Thursday, May 7, 2015
Mere hours after it announced the end of its military campaign, a Saudi-led military coalition resumed aerial bombardment of military targets in Yemen. Since the Saudi-led military forces intervened in the Yemeni conflict, civilian casualties have dramatically increased. Moreover, constant bombings have destroyed hospitals and other civilian facilities, crippling Yemeni infrastructure and preventing health workers from providing medical care. Those health facilities that continue to function in Yemen are under increasing pressure.

History Repeating Itself with Syria?

Sunday, May 10, 2015
Every few months Zaher Sahloul, a Syrian-American who lives near Chicago, asks to meet with me. I welcome him knowing that the meeting will be heartbreaking. Sahloul brings in Chicago-area doctors who have risked their lives crossing the Syrian border to provide medical care to the victims of this four-year conflict. Sahloul, his brave colleagues and so many others in Syria try to bring some humanity and medical care to these devastated areas. But they are struggling against the odds.

Health Care in Danger Report: The Untold Suffering

Monday, April 20, 2015
“An airstrike destroys the paediatric and premature baby section of a hospital killing, among others, five babies and three mothers. A health-care centre occupied by security forces for days, preventing patients’ access to medical treatment. A clearly marked ambulance misused for an arrest operation. A doctor threatened not to treat wounded combatants of an armed group”. The data on these and other incidents were collected by the ICRC in 11 countries from January 2012 to December 2014 and published in a report, uncovering the untold suffering that violence against health care is causing to thousands.

Beyond Belief: Health Care as a Weapon

Friday, April 10, 2015
This week I took an online course offered by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about health care responsibilities in times of conflict. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to consider the ethics of being a health worker in a war situation in today’s disturbing reality of what war is. There is one especially harrowing and dramatic video clip in the course: it shows the 2009 graduation ceremony of a group of Somali doctors—the first to graduate in many years. And as we look at the young doctors, proud in their robes, there is an explosion that cuts off the speaker and the picture—and then the scene is one of bodies everywhere.

Yemen: ICRC Calls for Unimpeded Delivery of Medical Supplies as Heavy Conflict Persists

Tuesday, March 31, 2015
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday called for the urgent removal of obstacles to the delivery to Yemen of vital medical supplies needed to treat casualties from a week of deadly clashes and air strikes. A shipment of ICRC medical supplies sufficient to treat from 700 to 1,000 people was due to arrive by plane on Tuesday for distribution to hospitals across the country that are running low on the means to treat the war wounded. So far, efforts to negotiate the safe arrival of the plane have not been successful.

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