Sharing Good Health Practices in Mali
In Mali, our staff recently visited the village of Barbé in the central region of Mopti to conduct health awareness sessions and home visits. Internal political instability and violence have caused hundreds of thousands of people to leave their homes, livestock and livelihoods in search of safety. Today more than 375,000 people remain displaced and, according to Human Rights Watch, “civilians continue to absorb the heavy cost of violence from all sides.”
More than 12 years of civil war have resulted in a lack of access to basic health services, contributing to high rates of health complications and death among pregnant women, mothers and young children. In addition, people in Mali face continued threats from infectious diseases, including malaria and HIV. That’s why we run health-awareness sessions that provide information about disease and infection prevention and response, helping communities to maintain a higher level of health.
International Medical Corps has worked in Mali since 2013. In addition to community health education, we provide infectious-disease prevention and response; health services, including mobile medical teams; nutrition support, including malnutrition prevention and treatment; and protection services for people affected by gender-based violence. We also work with communities to train community health volunteers and local health staff.
Bringing Health and Hope to Hard-to-Reach Communities
Violent clashes between rebel groups and armed forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee into remote and hard-to-reach areas of the country. Currently, we’re helping people in North Kivu, South Kivu and Tanganyika provinces, in the eastern part of the country.
We’ve been working in the DRC since 1999, providing health services and supplies, gender-based violence prevention and response services, and nutrition programs. Despite the dangers and challenges, nothing can stop our dedicated teams from reaching people in need.
Meanwhile, in Cameroon, International Medical Corps driver Vincent Ndi is undaunted by the obstacles he faces every day. “It’s a passion for me to help my brothers and sisters in the villages with no means to access health and nutrition services,” says Vincent.
Vincent applies his 27 years of experience driving in all regions of Cameroon—traversing terrible road conditions, encountering roadblocks, floods and landslides, and crossing rivers and mountains—to get staff, medicines, therapeutic food, supplies and more to remote villages. Vincent also helps evacuate people from dangerous areas in northwest Cameroon—even during the rainy season, when roads are nearly impassable.
Installing Solar-powered Solutions in Pakistan
Nearly two years after record-breaking monsoon flooding damaged or destroyed critical infrastructure across Pakistan, our teams are continuing to ensure that affected communities have access to clean, safe water. We’re also repairing toilet facilities so they don’t contaminate water sources.
In Rindo Khan Laghari village, we recently fixed a water-supply system—including a reverse osmosis (RO) water purification plant—and rehabilitated low-cost household latrines, ultimately bringing desperately needed clean water and sanitation facilities to more than 5,000 people.
Until we rehabilitated the damaged water plant, the community had relied on unsafe water sources (including wells and rivers) or purchased water, which was a significant financial burden. The RO plant operates on solar energy and has a capacity of 12,000 gallons per day—meaning the community now has a source of inexpensive and safe water available to it 24 hours per day.
A NICU in Gaza
With the conflict in Gaza intensifying, we have expanded our operations across the region. To meet shifting population needs, in April we relocated our 140-bed field hospital from Rafah to Al Mawasi, where we continue to provide a full range of services to civilians in southern Gaza, including surgical care for trauma, physical rehabilitation, comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care, advanced mental health services and more. The hospital is open 24/7 and currently serves as many as 1,500 patients per day.
Though we had already been providing extensive maternal healthcare services, including C-sections, we officially opened a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at our Al Mawasi field hospital on May 16 to support some of the most vulnerable affected by the war.
We also recently opened a 50-bed field hospital near Deir Al Balah in central Gaza that includes an emergency medical team, comprehensive obstetric and newborn care services, and inpatient services for acute medical cases.
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International Medical Corps is a global first responder that delivers emergency medical and related services to those affected by conflict, disaster and disease, no matter where they are, no matter the conditions. We also train people in their communities, providing them with the skills they need to recover, chart their own path to self-reliance and become effective first responders themselves. Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, we are a nonprofit with no religious or political affiliation, and now have more than 8,000 staff members around the world, 96% of whom are locally hired. Since our founding, we have operated in more than 80 countries, and have provided more than $4.2 billion in emergency relief and training to communities worldwide.
Our staff includes experts in emergency medicine, infectious disease, nutrition, mental health, maternal and infant health, gender-based violence prevention and treatment, training, and water, sanitation and hygiene, all within the humanitarian context.
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