EMERGENCY ONG ETS

After months of blockade, the aid that has been allowed into #Gaza in the last few hours cannot undo the profound effects of prolonged deprivation of food and water. The ongoing humanitarian catastrophe will have a severe lasting impact on the population: the top priority must be to ensure there is enough safe, healthy and nutritious food for everyone, without interruption. In our clinic in Gaza, we distribute ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) to children between six months and five years old. We provide this to around 60 children a week, performing screenings and ongoing checks to assess their conditions before and after receiving treatment. In July alone, 63 people have died of starvation in Gaza. 24 were children under the age of five. Children need protein and healthy fats to grow, but months without food or adequate nutrition have had irreversible consequences on their physical and cognitive development, especially toddlers under two years old. As Raffaela, our gynaecologist and Medical Coordinator in Gaza tells us, "The hunger in Gaza is unbearable. A nine-year-old girl arrived at the clinic weighing just 16 kilos. Every day, with my own eyes, I see the population wasting away."

EMERGENCY UK and Randal Charitable Foundation partner to help save and improve thousands of lives. A landmark, multi-year strategic partnership between EMERGENCY UK and the Randal Charitable Foundation is already six months into providing crucial funding for EMERGENCY’s healthcare projects worldwide, and set to help save and improve thousands of lives. With £500,000 committed in the first year alone, the Randal Foundation are already bringing crucial funding to EMERGENCY’s free-of-charge health facilities in Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and Uganda, for: 💊 pharmacy supplies 🩹 medical consumables 🩼 equipment   The Randal Foundation is also supporting the growth of EMERGENCY’s UK affiliate. Healthcare is a human right. Losing access – whether due to the absence of facilities, high costs, lack of equipment, insufficient staff – can be life-threatening, especially in countries suffering from violence or extreme poverty. The new partnership is set to help save and improve thousands of lives, in countries where the effects of violence and poverty are preventing access to care. Read more at https://lnkd.in/dctDnzNm With thanks to Rossella Miccio, President of EMERGENCY, and Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL, Chairman and Founder of the Randal Charitable Foundation.

"We faced a massive evacuation ordered by the Israeli army in the Deir al-Balah region and have since faced the most intense bombing and violence since I arrived here well over a month ago,” reports Mina Naguib, EMERGENCY doctor in #Gaza. “The evacuated region contained one of the two main thoroughfares, which blocked us from accessing our outpatient clinic. Gaza's population is now living in just 12% of the land, without access to food.” On 20 July, the evacuation order that struck Deir al-Balah forced between 50,000 and 80,000 people to flee. Some of our staff were unable to reach our healthcare clinics: the roads were blocked and dangerous due to the Israeli army's military operations. Living space in Gaza is shrinking daily. Thousands of families, already exhausted by hunger, thirst and displacement, are being forced to move at very short notice, sometimes in a matter of minutes. The population urgently needs everything: food, water, care. “The international community must push for an immediate ceasefire and flood Gaza with aid, which Israel is not allowing,” Dr Mina concludes. “The situation has become increasingly intolerable. If intervention does not take place soon, we will see death on a scale that surpasses the tens of thousands already killed.” It is unacceptable for the essential work of humanitarian organisations to be impeded by military orders and bombardments. Ceasefire. Stop this horror.

Our search and rescue ship #LifeSupportSAR is on its way to Ancona, its assigned port of disembarkation. On board are 71 people rescued on Monday in two separate operations. Among them are a woman who is nine months pregnant, as well as 15 unaccompanied minors. Once again, authorities have chosen to assign a distant port, adding to the suffering of already vulnerable people who should be allowed to reach land as quickly as possible.

H. was standing next to his mother, queuing with hundreds of others around one of the few remaining food distribution points in #Gaza. “Those who arrive first try not to lose their place. Those who arrive later try to find room for themselves so they don't end up with nothing,” the patients at our clinic tell us. In Gaza, it is increasingly difficult to eat even one meal a day and, very often, finding that meal is dangerous. With one hand, H. held tightly onto his mother. With the other, he held his empty bowl. While waiting, he was swept away by the crowd and collided with one of the boiling pots. He arrived at our clinic with second-degree burns on his chest. While we were treating him, we managed to distract him for a few moments with a glove turned into a balloon. H. lives in a refugee camp in Gaza, where poor sanitary conditions and a lack of safe, clean water have exposed his wound to infections. We showed his mother how to protect the wound even in such difficult circumstances, and regularly checked in on H. Now, he is doing better. H. is a victim of hunger caused by the inhumane blockade on humanitarian aid entering Gaza. The United Nations reports over 70,000 diagnosed cases of acute or severe malnutrition among children in the Strip. All of Gaza is hungry. The situation is intolerable.

"A horror within a horror." Several children were killed and injured in a strike whilst waiting for therapeutic food and treatment at a clinic in Deir al-Balah yesterday. Our colleagues in #Gaza report that strikes have intensified in recent days, and so have civilian casualties. We demand a permanent ceasefire and the entry of humanitarian aid.

In #Gaza, we see the consequences of hunger, malnutrition and famine every day: for people to have the chance to survive, humanitarian aid must be brought in as soon as possible. From our Outpatient Clinic in Khan Younis, our Medical Coordinator Giorgio provides an update. “I want to talk about hunger, malnutrition, and famine. These are very serious problems when viewed from a clinical perspective, with an increase in pain, increasingly severe organ damage, and a rise in psychiatric and psychological problems. Who is the most vulnerable? Children. The United Nations has released an extremely alarming report which states that in the northern part of Gaza, which is the worst affected, four out of five families are skipping a meal every day because they cannot find enough food. In the rest of Gaza, half the population faces the same issue. It is too late. We must act. We must do something. Meanwhile, there is food outside, but this food is not getting in. This war is not ending. It must be stopped immediately. Humanitarian aid must be allowed in. These people must be given a chance to survive.”

Over the weekend, Life Support recovered the bodies of two people who had drowned. They were found adrift in international waters, within the Libyan Search and Rescue (SAR) zone. After informing the competent authorities of the recovery, EMERGENCY's Life Support was assigned Augusta as the port of disembarkation for the bodies, which took place on Sunday 29 June We do not know exactly what happened. Perhaps there was a shipwreck of a boat in distress - one of the many ‘invisible shipwrecks’ that go unreported. Perhaps it was a distress call that went unanswered for too long. Or perhaps, in an attempt to escape traffickers or the so-called Libyan coast guard, they jumped into the sea rather than be forced back to Libya. What we do know is this: it is inhumane to continue outsourcing the management of migration to countries that systematically violate human rights. We need a European search and rescue mission. We must establish and guarantee legal and safe channels for those seeking refuge. We are at sea to save lives, and this must also be the priority for migration policies.

Living with a health system devastated by decades of conflict, many Afghans are struggling to access essential healthcare services, according to a new report by EMERGENCY and CRIMEDIM. Through surveys and interviews with more than 1,600 patients, caregivers and healthcare workers across 11 provinces, “Access to Emergency, Critical, and Operative Care in Afghanistan” centres Afghans’ first-hand experiences in order to understand the barriers to healthcare in the country. Physical barriers prove one of the most difficult for patients to overcome: just over 2% of those surveyed said they were able to use a public ambulance to access health services, while nearly half—many of whom live in Afghanistan’s mountainous rural areas—travelled on foot. When facilities are reached, they often lack the staff or equipment needed to provide care safely. As a consequence of such widespread historic neglect of the public healthcare system, 79% of respondents were forced to travel to another city, province or even another country for surgical care. For those seeking maternal healthcare, the percentage reached 76%, with two-thirds of women respondents needing to travel to access the services they need. Facing this widespread series of overlapping obstacles, one in four patients were forced to postpone a surgical operation at least once, the report finds, while one in five has missed a follow-up appointment. Delaying essential care frequently leads to worse health outcomes, in turn putting an even greater strain on the health system: over 33% of those surveyed reported a disability or death due to delayed care. “The Afghan people suffered debilitating health insecurity through decades of conflict, and now in the face of joint economic and humanitarian crises,” says Rossella Miccio, President of EMERGENCY. “For this report, the research team spoke to patients, their families, and colleagues across our surgical hospitals and primary care clinics, as well as staff at government-run hospitals, in order to understand, first-hand from the Afghan people, exactly what barriers are preventing them from accessing the healthcare services that could save their lives.” Based on the input of more than 1,600 Afghan participants, the report concludes with 10 recommendations to improve the country’s health system and promote better access to care. Read the full report now: https://lnkd.in/dShwQdaQ

One in every 67 people on the planet has been forcibly displaced. According to the United Nations, the number of people forced to flee their homes or countries due to war, poverty, extreme weather, persecution, and human rights violations increased by 7 million between 2023 and 2024. These individuals are seeking peace, rights, and a future. Today, 123.2 million people are displaced worldwide - twice as many as a decade ago. The causes driving displacement are multiplying, with war remaining one of the primary reasons. Of the 56 active conflicts around the world, the war in Sudan has triggered the largest number of displaced people, affecting 14.3 million - one in three in the country. Even before the conflict erupted in April 2023, Sudan hosted over one million refugees from surrounding countries. The lack of safe and legal access routes, the externalisation of borders, and agreements with transit or third countries - often based on arrangements that fail to guarantee essential human rights - expose people on the move to further risks, threatening their safety and, in many cases, their survival. Walls and borders are reinforced, and the chances of securing rights for vulnerable people seeking a better future are diminishing. “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person,” states Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. #WorldRefugeeDay