By Ameer Sharifzadeh Note from MedGlobal: The situation in Moria Camp and throughout Lesvos Island in Greece is changing rapidly in light of the COVID-19
March 20, 2020 In the midst of the deadly global COVID-19 pandemic, MedGlobal urges immediate and urgent action to support refugees, displaced persons, and the
Curbing the global COVID-19 pandemic begins with limiting interpersonal transmission. Experts believe that the virus spreads through respiratory droplets, so individuals who do not practice
In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, MedGlobal urges immediate action for the most vulnerable. We warn of the catastrophic impact of the virus on refugees, displaced persons, and victims of disasters if we do not take immediate action.
March 20, 2020 In the midst of the deadly global COVID-19 pandemic, MedGlobal urges immediate and urgent action to support refugees, displaced persons, and the
Sustainable education; it is the purpose of the train-the-trainer model, which MedGlobal employs, through global partnerships, in developing countries and under-resourced areas.
MedGlobal is closely monitoring the outbreak of COVID-19. We have suspended our short-term missions until further notice, however, our ongoing programs are operating to provide
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will be cancelling the MedGlobal Conference & Benefit Reception on April 17 as well as training courses April
By Dr. Zaher Sahloul, MedGlobal President As novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV or COVID19) continues to spread and news headlines predict a rise in cases in the
March 4, 2020 Washington, DC – MedGlobal expresses deep concern about the recent attacks against humanitarians, including MedGlobal volunteers, and refugees in Greece. MedGlobal has
MedGlobal is returning to Gaza twice in 2020 to provide training and medical care in partnership with Rahma Worldwide. Training throughout the week will include
By Adam Beckett, MedGlobal Volunteer & Global First Responder Day One: I am doing a little insightful reading for the long journey ahead from a
Last week, MedGlobal President Dr. Zaher Sahloul and the advocacy team held a round of high-level meetings with UN agencies, officials, and delegations to discuss
This will be MedGlobal’s second Pakistan mission to train local medical providers at Indus Health Network. Training throughout the week will include Point of Care
MedGlobal provides hope and healing to the displaced people in Idlib, Syria MedGlobal, along with a group of humanitarian organizations, stood in solidarity with 1.2
MedGlobal recently deployed an educational mission to Pakistan in November 2019. Along with local partner, Indus Hospital, MedGlobal and volunteers provided training to health care
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, currently hosts the world’s largest refugee camp, with more than 1.24 Million Rohingya in need of humanitarian assistance. We operate in a
This past November, MedGlobal took a team of volunteers to complete a medical, surgical, and educational mission in Yemen. MedGlobal volunteer pediatrician, Dr. Lia Harris,
Do you have stocks that have appreciated this year? You can get a tax break if you donate them to MedGlobal! By donating appreciated assets,
The Venezuelan refugee exodus is the worst humanitarian crisis in the southern hemisphere, second only to the Syrian catastrophe. Fifteen percent of the population –
MedGlobal recently returned from a targeted medical mission in Yemen providing medical and surgical services and medical training programs. A diverse team of highly skilled
Over 50,000 refugees have arrived by sea at the Greek Agean Islands of Lesvos, Samos, and Leros in 2019 – a significant increase from 2018.
There are currently over 1.3 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, over 75% of them are women and children. Our medical volunteers and local doctors have
Marked by political repression, hyperinflation, food and medicine shortages, the crisis in Venezuela continues, unabated after five years of conflict. Once the richest country in
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.
“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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