
Syria MedGlobal COVID-19 Home Health Report
The growing stress on the local health care system in North West Syria required an intervention that would support people impacted with mild COVID-19 outside
The growing stress on the local health care system in North West Syria required an intervention that would support people impacted with mild COVID-19 outside
Latest News for December 3 – December 10, 2021 Afghanistan A million children may die in Afghanistan this winter due to mass starvation. The economic
By Richard Scott, MD, medical volunteer of MedGlobal’s November 2021 short-term medical intervention in Colombia. In joining the MedGlobal Brigade in Colombia, I was not
Next week, on November 30, it will be #GivingTuesday. Created as a global generosity movement, Giving Tuesday is the perfect opportunity to give back to
Cover Image: Down to Earth Latest News for November 12 – November 19, 2021 Afghanistan Countries discuss the unfreezing of assets as Afghanistan faces an
By Valerie Nguyen, MedGlobal Policy Intern When the first booster shots were approved in the United States in September 2021, over half of the U.S.
Cover Image: New York Times Latest News for November 5 – November 12, 2021 Afghanistan The number of Afghans living on the edge of famine
By Edith Muleiro, MedGlobal Communications Intern By 2030 there will be 1.4 billion older people. By 2050 there will be 2.1 billion, meaning one in
Cover Image: Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP Latest News for October 29 – November 5, 2021 Afghanistan The Taliban has prohibited women from working within aid organizations
By Valerie Nguyen, MedGlobal Policy Intern More than 10 years of conflict in Syria has led close to 12 million Syrians to flee the country
Cover Image: Hoshang Hashimi/AFP Latest News for October 22 – October 29, 2021 Afghanistan Detrimental climate effects further the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. More than
Cover Image: Francesca Volpi for CNN Latest News for October 15 – October 22, 2021 Afghanistan The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan will likely fuel a
After more than six years of conflict, Yemen remains the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Millions of people lack access to basic health care, and less
Cover Image: Mahmud Hams/AFP Latest News for October 8 – October 15, 2021 Afghanistan Numbers of people in need of humanitarian assistance rise by the
Cover Image: World Vision/Guy Vital-Herne Latest News for October 1 – October 8, 2021 Afghanistan Afghanistan risks losing 78% of its electrical power. The state
Cover Image: JOAQUIN SARMIENTO AFP/File Latest News for September 24 – October 1, 2021 Afghanistan Drought, pandemic and economic freefall: Afghanistan’s looming humanitarian crisis. More
Cover Image: AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon Dr. Lia Harris, Pediatrician and MedGlobal Volunteer, has been practicing medicine for 20 years. Last year, she travelled to Afghanistan
By Emma Ackerman, MedGlobal Communications & Advocacy Intern The Venezuelan migration crisis is the largest external displacement crisis in South America, and the second largest
On August 14, 2021, the people of Haiti endured yet another devastating earthquake, killing at least 2,000 people and leaving more than 12,000 injured. Thousands
Cover Image: UNICEF/Al-Faqir Latest News for August 16 – August 20, 2021 Afghanistan According to the UNHCR, Afghanistan is on track to experience a record
By Valerie Nguyen, MedGlobal Policy Intern In May, the world saw as bombings killed and injured hundreds of people living in Gaza, including critical local
By Emma Ackerman, MedGlobal Communications & Advocacy Intern Last June in the Somitipara neighborhood of Cox’s Bazar, 20 year old Nazia* died in her home
Each week, we highlight the latest news related to the humanitarian and health crises in our countries of operation: Bangladesh/ Myanmar, Colombia/ Venezuela, Gaza/ Palestinan
On August 4, 2020, a devastating explosion occurred in the port of Lebanon’s capital city, Beirut. The explosion left over 200 people dead, 6,500 injured,
The United Nations Security Council on Saturday adopted a resolution that leaves only one of two border crossings open for aid deliveries from Turkey into Syria.
“The veto is against us,” Mustafa Alkaser told NBC News from a refugee camp in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.
“I recently joined a non-governmental organization, MedGlobal, along with a group of volunteers offering medical surgical education program and care at two government hospitals in Yemen; Sayoun General Hospital…”
Driven from their homes by war and unrest, up to 10 million of the world’s 70 million refugees live in crowded camps and informal settlements. Now comes a new threat: the coronavirus rampaging across the globe.
The impact of the pandemic on the US, with more than 430,000 cases and nearly 15,000 deaths so far, is familiar to some Arab-American medics who have worked in man-made disasters such the Syrian civil war.Zaher Sahloul, a critical care doctor at Christ Advocate Medical Centre in Chicago and president of refugee assistance group MedGlobal, said the situation at his hospital was closer to a “war zone”.
Zaher Sahloul, a physician and president and co-founder of aid organization MedGlobal, was last in Idlib in January and said that with so little room, people are sleeping anywhere they can, including tents in a refugee camp set up in a soccer field and tiny classrooms in schools. Many children had respiratory illnesses because of the overcrowding and cold.
In a hospital in Karachi, a Pakistani medical resident examines a patient who has pain in his side. The resident and her instructor scan the man with a hand-held device about the size of an electric razor and discover he has a backup of fluid in his kidney. The patient’s history and further tests confirm their diagnosis.
The war in Syria has waged for almost nine years and claimed millions of lives. Northwest Idlib province is the last refuge for Syrians fleeing attacks by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But the crowded, muddy refugee camps there offer little shelter or support, and to the north, Turkey’s border is closed to those seeking better conditions. Nick Schifrin reports on Idlib’s “fragile stability.”
Tracy Ibgui, a registered nurse from Clarendon Hills, traveled to the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, to help victims of what the United Nations calls a genocide; mass killings of Rohingya Muslims by the government in Myanmar.
“Women want to control the time that they deliver because things are unexpected,” Sahloul said. “A bombing can happen at any time, and in the middle of the night you cannot move to the hospital.”
As a general pediatrician, and Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) instructor from Vernon, BC, Canada, I couldn’t help but see a need for newborn resuscitation education when I volunteered with MedGlobal for the first time in the Rohingya refugee camp, near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in April, 2018.
“This is the worst crisis that the world is facing in the 21st century. You know, there are brushfires in Australia, there’s all kinds of wars, but we’re talking about 4 million people who are trapped in Idlib.”
Even for children who weren’t separated from their parents during immigration processing, the psycho-emotional stressors of making such a journey can be “far worse than the physical ones,” retired pediatrician John Kahler said.
“Sharing the information with the United Nations did not lead to greater protection,” said Dr Zaher Sahloul, the president of MedGlobal who was recently in Idlib. “If anything people are thinking right now that by sharing this information it’s increasing the risk of targeting the hospitals.”
Syrian Muslims, Rohingya Muslims and Yemeni Muslims are very different from each other in terms of literacy rates, lifestyles and occupations, says retired pediatrician John Kahler. Yet, today, all of these groups are struggling with escalating violence in their homelands, resulting in growing humanitarian crises around the world.
According to a Word Health Organization (WHO) situation report, there are 18.8 million people in Yemen who are in need of some sort of humanitarian aid. 14.8 million people in Yemen have no access to health care services.
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“While the global health community and countries are busy with curbing the spread of the covid-19, let us not forget the refugees and the displaced. It is our humanitarian duty, and it is also the right thing to do to prevent catastrophic morbidity and mortality in a population that is unable to deal with the pandemic effectively.”
In the last 72 hours, the United Nations reports more than 250,000 people have been displaced from Syrian towns and villages near Idlib.
It has been called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
After nine years of suffering, it looks as if the international community and the United Nations have left the Syrian people on their own. Even proper tents to give some warmth, usually provided by UNHCR, were not available when I was there.
“I saw some villages completely emptied or half-emptied of their residents,” said Dr. Zaher Sahloul, the president of MedGlobal, an organization that sends medical teams to disaster regions, who risked the bombardments and threats from extremist groups to visit some of the most devastated areas this week.
The National Hellenic Museum will host a conversation with MedGlobal Doctors John Kahler and Peter Houck on the current state of the refugee crisis in Greece on Sunday, August 11, 2019, from 2 – 4 PM.
Every day is a busy day at the Hope Foundation clinic outside Balukhali camp in Bangladesh. The small facility teems with Rohingya refugees who have fled a campaign of brutal violence by the Myanmar military. The week I was there last December, there was a man with a bullet wound, a woman with facial burns, and more women with tiny babies than I could count.
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