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News, blog posts, and event announcements. Other websites are welcome to cross-post this material with attribution and a link to the original.

04/16/2014

JUBA, South Sudan – Armed with a broad smile, Jennifer Ikokole ushers expectant mothers into a makeshift tent at the sprawling Tomping civilian protection camp in South Sudan’s capital, Juba. As the current crisis takes its toll on the population, the tent serves both as a maternity ward and a maternal and child health clinic. Ms. Ikokole, 49, started working as a midwife 24 years ago in her native country of Uganda. When she joined UNFPA’s midwifery programme in South Sudan two years ago, she knew her work was cut out for her.
04/11/2014

In 2009, while a fellow at the Center for Khmer Studies in Cambodia, I interviewed a pediatric nurse based at the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap. Our conversation was short, but what I remember most about the encounter was my colleague’s answer to my question about why she had come to Cambodia in the first place. “Yes, I’m from Sri Lanka. But I’m in Cambodia now because I know what it’s like to live in conflict. Good health is important, especially for women and children. So I’m here because I understand the context and have the skills to help.”
04/10/2014

Pretoria/Geneva (ICRC) – Community acceptance, provision of impartial treatment and psychosocial support for medical staff working under stress can all play key roles in making health-care facilities more secure amid armed conflict or other emergencies. These are some of the recommendations that emerged from a workshop that took place in Pretoria, South Africa, this week as part of the “Health Care in Danger” project on the dangers facing health-care services.
04/09/2014

I would like to reflect that Afghanistan is facing an armed conflict, and that the security situation has been gradually degrading over the past few years. In 2013 NGOs were impacted by 228 violent incidents, the highest number since 2011 and the worst year on record. During the four first months of 2014, 43 security incidents impacted NGOs in Afghanistan.
04/04/2014

ACBAR wishes officially to express its disapproval of any attack, intimidation, violence or threats against NGOs working in Afghanistan. We appeal to all parties to the Afghan conflict to respect the neutrality of NGOs and the work they do with the aim of helping people of Afghanistan without implication of the ongoing conflict. NGOs – both local and international – play a critical role in providing relief and development aid to needy people in all 34 provinces of Afghanistan; often in areas were other services providers have limited or no access.
04/04/2014

New shots are jeopardizing humanity’s battle to eradicate polio, and they don't include syringes or vaccines. Rather, they’re the gunshots of Islamic terrorists. The fight to eliminate polio is now imperiled, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), by “insecurity, targeted attacks on health workers and/or a ban by local authorities on polio immunization,” and violence in the Middle East. In a March 2014 report, the organization warned that the virus, which existed in only three countries at the dawn of 2012, is now returning to places from which it had been eradicated, and “risk of further international spread remains high, particularly in central Africa (especially from Cameroon), the Middle East, and the Horn of Africa.”
04/04/2014

Geneva (ICRC) – On the occasion of World Health Day, 7 April, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is issuing a report on "Violent incidents affecting the delivery of health care," based on a large number of recorded cases, to raise awareness of attacks on people seeking or providing health care.
04/03/2014

Sunday: Mahmoud Thrakis, 5, died without medical care after suffering post-appendix operation complications. Monday: Rusmai Ga, 1, died without medical care after contracting an infection and developing a fever. Tuesday: Mahmad Farouk, 40, father of four, died without medical care from symptoms related to diabetes.
04/01/2014

A female polio worker was gunned down by two armed men on a motorcycle in the cantonment area of Bannu on Monday. The shooting occurred at around 8:30 in the morning, according to Deputy Superintendent of Police Sanaullah Khan Marwat. Marwat identified the victim as Fehmida Yasmeen, wife of Sattar Shah, a resident of Sokari Zabita Khan. Yasmeen was shot dead while she was going to a market near Abi Talha Masjid in Bannu cantonment.
03/26/2014

The severe lack of medical supplies in Syria has been well documented by both the media and humanitarian and human rights groups. Humanitarian missions are blocked, supply trucks are targeted for attack, and those attempting to move critical medical supplies into Syria put their lives at risk. There are insufficient supplies of nearly everything needed by doctors and their patients – everything except laughter.

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