180 women give birth each day in Gaza. Save the Children projects 15% of them experience birth complications: bleeding, infection, seizures. With virtually all healthcare facilities shuttered or disabled, where will these women find help? Some 650,000 children in Gaza are hungry, per UNICEF. That’s about half the population of the Kansas City area. Highly […]
This award recognizes individuals and organizations who provide exemplary disaster response services for highly vulnerable communities. In doing so, they accentuate the value of life and provide an exemplary model for us all. The 2023 Humanitarian Crisis Response Award recipient is Blessings International. Since 1981, this Tulsa, Oklahoma-based, organization has been working to build healthy
The earth would occasionally rumble under my feet as a child living with my grandmother in Greece. We ran outside of her brick home; fearful it would collapse and kill us. One month ago, just 400 miles away in Turkey and Syria, earthquakes did indeed collapse thousands of homes, instantly killing 50,000 people –
This award recognizes individuals and organizations who provide exemplary disaster response services for highly vulnerable communities. In doing so, they accentuate the value of life and provide an exemplary model for us all. The 2022 Humanitarian Crisis Response Award recipient is Ted Higgins. Dr. Higgins is a surgeon who has devoted his career to
Are Americans experiencing a change of heart towards refugees? Since Aug 16, we’ve witnessed with dismay the immediate Taliban return to power in Afghanistan. We’ve viewed with horror the carnage of airport suicide bombings. We’ve peered inside the crammed compartment of giant Air Force planes evacuating Afghans. Has any of this touched American hearts?
“Massive” “Colossal” and “Immense” – words that inadequately describe the magnitude of the explosion which convulsed Beirut, Lebanon, three days ago. With the force of an early atomic bomb, 2,700 tons of highly combustible ammonium nitrate ignited in the congested port city. Some 140 people were instantly incinerated, 5,000 people packed hospitals suffering from
“How can international aid organizations better respond to human catastrophes, like what is unfolding at this moment in Yemen?” Khalid Eddahiri, United Nations Medical Officer and INMED Master’s in International Health (MIH) candidate, is tackling this compelling question for his MIH scholarly project. And what a virtuous undertaking! Today, more than 20 million people
In an inspiring paradigm shift, healthcare professionals from the island nation of Haiti journeyed to the island territory of Puerto Rico, providing emergency disaster assistance. Parallel to the Haitian earthquake of 2010, Hurricane Maria unleashed devastation on Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. In the aftermath, almost every family was without electricity, safe drinking
Sadly, we have a crowded line up of contenders for this moment’s most pressing human catastrophe. They include Syrians fleeing ISIS, Yemen’s cholera epidemic, South Sudanese facing starvation. Yet almost unnoticed, and eclipsing them all, are the more than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar (Burma) since August 25. Some 250,000 of these refugees are
At this moment, UNHCR estimates more than 63 million people are uprooted – more than at any time since WWII. In step with such mobilization, general aid and healthcare for refugees is becoming progressively more pressing, too. Understanding the Refugee Emergency Phases is especially useful for those like us committed to their welfare: