Committed to serving the most vulnerable in South Sudan
This blog was written by GHC member IMA World Health (IMA). IMA's work in South Sudan is funded by Global Fund/Population Services International, Global Fund/UNDP, Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, UK's Department for International Development/Mott MacDonald, UNFPA, and World Bank/South Sudan Ministry of Health. In the midst of ongoing violence in South Sudan, an estimated 2.3…
GHC WHA Statement on Agenda Item 14.6 – WHO response in severe, large-scale emergencies
Honorable Chair and Members of the Assembly, Thank you for the opportunity to address the WHO response to severe large-scale emergencies. I am speaking on behalf of the Global Heath Council and the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, which is comprised of more than 30 health, civil society and professional organizations dedicated to promoting the…
When Disaster Strikes, Who Responds?
In many parts of the developed world there are relief teams, ambulances, and specially trained workers and emergency rooms in hospitals that can absorb the wave of victims when a crisis hits. Supporting these services is an infrastructure consisting of healthcare facilities, support and counseling services, and organizations that are ready to generate funding to…
President Obama's FY2013 Budget Request Leaves Global Health Goals in Doubt
GHC Senior Policy Manager Craig Moscetti breaks down the President's global health budget numbers President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2013 budget request yesterday, showing an essential flat-line in international affairs funding, but a $300 million cut to U.S. global health programs, a 4% decrease from levels enacted last year. Most global health issues were…
Leading the Way in Burn Care: Two Decades of Success in South Africa
Our skin both protects us from the world and lets us experience it. It fits us perfectly, stretches as we grow, warns us of danger, allows us to feel wind and sun. But it is also delicate. In low-resource areas, where women and children are more likely to spend time around open fires and cooking stoves, serious burn victims experience a trauma that leaves them vulnerable in a way most of us can't imagine.
Drought & Famine: PReventing History From Repeating Itself
The current drought and famine in East Africa? We saw it coming says International Medical Corps' Margaret Aguirre. In the humanitarian world, there are the disasters you see coming, and the ones you don't. We didn't foresee the massive 2010 earthquake in Haiti … the devastating floods in Pakistan… the earthquake and tsunami in…
In Libya, Bedouins Give up Own Homes to Neighbors Fleeing Violence
As the conflict in Libya rages, with government and rebel forces attacking one another, desert nomads must flee their homes. For countless generations the Bedouin, desert nomads in Libya, have lived as one large family, collective with their harsh environment. Now as the conflict in Libya rages, with government and rebel forces attacking one another…
Recognizing Value in Longer-Term Investments in Health Worker Ed
Nursing students in Liberia receive skills to care for people with HIV and TB For the first time in many decades, nursing students in Liberia are receiving the fundamental skills needed to competently care for people suffering from HIV, TB, malaria and other diseases that kill thousands every year in Western Africa. Sound elemental? It…
Floods in Pakistan Expose Poverty and Malnutrition
The [floods in Pakistan drew] a significant emergency and recovery response on the part of numerous International NGOs Last summer's massive floods swept through and destroyed lives, houses, crop lands and road infrastructure, causing enormous suffering and damages across an area the size of Italy. The disaster has drawn a significant emergency and recovery response…
In Tsunami-ravaged Town, a Gift of Hope
International Medical Corps staff finds hope amidst the devastation in a Japanese fishing village Every job has ups and downs, but today topped all other "up" days. Japan's Prefectural Office of Disaster Assistance asked International Medical Corps to assess an area called Ogatsu-machi. A small fishing and oyster town of roughly 4,700 people, Ogatsu was…