Alongside Khartoum’s Recovering Health System

As people return to Khartoum and communities begin to rebuild after years of conflict, a 14-day Resiliency Medical Mission brought specialist care, hands-on training and mentorship alongside Sudanese healthcare professionals navigating the long work of recovery.

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Around a table at Bashair University Hospital in Khartoum, physicians gathered for a hands-on session on chest tube insertion.

Dr. Es-Haq S. Hassanin, a pulmonary and critical care fellow, covered different approaches to chest tube insertion and gave participants hands-on experience with the procedure.

The session was part of a broader training program delivered during MedGlobal’s Resiliency Medical Mission in Khartoum in July 2026. Across the mission, 10 educational sessions and workshops recorded 311 attendances, covering areas including emergency care, pediatrics, diagnostic imaging, point-of-care ultrasound, chest tube insertion, hand surgery and burn management.

“There is a really big need for training the future physicians and current physicians who are in training,” Hassanin said.

A health system restoring services

Bashair University Hospital serves communities in southern Khartoum and is providing care in a health system affected by years of conflict, including disruption to services, damage to infrastructure and equipment, and the loss of experienced healthcare professionals.

For Dr. Aman Alawad, MedGlobal’s Sudan Country Director, one of the clearest measures of recovery is the return of the people who make those services possible.

“The most encouraging signs of recovery are the healthcare workforce returning to duty in Khartoum, alongside the revival of medical internship programs and educational training.”

Dr. Aman Alawad
MedGlobal Sudan Country Director

Care delivered alongside local teams

Four U.S.-based volunteer physicians brought complementary specialties to the mission: Dr. Myles M. Dickason in emergency medicine, Dr. Es-Haq S. Hassanin in internal medicine with pulmonary and critical care expertise, Dr. Mir Ali in pediatrics, and Dr. Syed Sayeed in plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Across the 14-day mission, the team recorded 225 documented patient encounters across outpatient, emergency and inpatient settings.

In emergency medicine, Dickason combined direct patient care with an assessment of emergency department operations, identifying opportunities to strengthen how patients are assessed, treated and referred within the existing system. He worked with clinical staff, participated in ward rounds and contributed to training on vital signs, triage and sepsis recognition.

Ali worked across outpatient, emergency and inpatient pediatric care. He participated in regular ward and discharge rounds alongside local physicians, working within the hospital’s existing clinical and teaching structures. Pediatrics accounted for the largest share of the mission’s documented clinical activity, with 110 patient encounters.

Hassanin provided internal medicine and pulmonary care across ward, emergency and outpatient settings. His training sessions included thoracic imaging, point-of-care chest ultrasound and chest tube insertion.

Sayeed worked alongside local surgical teams in trauma care, emergency procedures and operations. His work also extended to Omdurman Hospital, where he supervised operations while providing hands-on teaching and case-based discussion with resident surgeons.

Restoring services involves more than reopening hospital doors. Alongside their clinical work, the four specialists met with hospital leadership and clinical staff on challenges ranging from emergency care and patient flow to infection prevention and workforce capacity.

Capacity that remains

The clinical work and teaching ran together across the two weeks, with sessions addressing needs in the same departments where the specialists were treating patients.

“We were able to get their hands-on experience and now they’ll be ready to hopefully put chest tubes in the future in case the need arises.”

Dr. Es-Haq S. Hassanin
MedGlobal Volunteer Physician

The mission also created opportunities for mentorship beyond individual clinical skills. Alawad said the RMM provided healthcare professionals with “critical mentorship, motivation for professional development, and clarity on career pathways.”

That emphasis carried into a one-day medical conference convened by MedGlobal with Bashair University Hospital and Al Neelain University. Seventy participants attended, including medical students, medical officers, residents and specialists.

Members of the visiting team presented cases alongside house officers, bringing the clinical and educational sides of the mission together. Participants discussed cases encountered during the mission, approaches to care and some of the broader challenges facing the health system. The program also included career guidance and engagement with hospital and university leadership.

The co-presentation format placed junior Sudanese clinicians not only in the audience, but alongside visiting specialists in presenting and discussing the work.

MedGlobal has worked in Sudan since 2019, supporting health facilities and healthcare professionals as they respond to immediate needs while strengthening services over the longer term. Resiliency Medical Missions are one part of that work, connecting volunteer specialists with local counterparts for clinical care, training and technical collaboration.

Fourteen days did not rebuild Khartoum’s health system. What the mission offered was specialist support for a short period, and training that stays with the physicians who took part.

The Sudanese healthcare professionals working alongside the visiting specialists were caring for patients before they arrived and continued after they left. That continuity was central to the RMM’s approach.

What We Couldn’t See: Lujain’s Story of Healing

After her father was killed, Lujain’s declining appetite and weight were only part of what she was experiencing. Coordinated nutrition and mental health care helped her begin to recover.

Deir Al Balah, Gaza

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It started with a request. Lujain, a seven-year-old girl in Gaza, asked for a meal. Not just any meal, but a food she had not asked for in months.

In most households this would pass unnoticed. For the two health care workers following her care, it was the sign they had been waiting for. “She began asking for meals she hadn’t asked for before,” one of them recalls. “This gave me relief.”

To understand why a request for food could bring relief, it helps to go back to the point where eating stopped being simple.

When eating became part of a larger problem

Lujain’s father was killed in the conflict. In the period that followed, she experienced severe trauma, and its effects reached well beyond her emotional state.

“This caused a loss of appetite, a complex mental state, anemia, and severe weight loss.”

Saba Al-Najjar, Nutrition Officer

“She had severe trauma after her father was killed,” says Saba Al-Najjar, a nutrition officer with MedGlobal in Gaza. “This caused a loss of appetite, a complex mental state, anemia, and severe weight loss.”

Anemia is a condition in which the blood carries too little oxygen. It leaves a child tired and struggling to focus. At school, Lujain’s concentration slipped. At home, and in daily activities, she withdrew.

Her mother saw it happening. “I noticed her mental and dietary health declining,” she says. She was told to bring Lujain to MedGlobal, where the family, displaced from their home and now living in a school, could see specialists.

Each of Lujain’s symptoms could be recorded on its own. Weight on a scale. Hemoglobin on a lab result. A teacher’s note about attention. Taken one at a time, they pointed to a nutritional problem with a nutritional solution. Taken together, they described something more.

Looking beyond nutrition

Saba met Lujain three months before this story was recorded. Her assessment established the visible clinical picture: a child who was underweight, anemic, and not eating enough.

“We cared for her, forming a partnership with the therapist to address both her mental and dietary needs.”

Saba Al-Najjar, Nutrition Officer

Nutritional care was necessary, and Saba provided it. She monitored Lujain’s intake and weight and supported her with the vitamins she needed. But food and supplements alone would not reach what was driving the decline. A child who stops wanting to eat after the death of a parent is not only short of calories. The loss of appetite, the loss of weight, and the loss of interest in school had arrived together, and they had a shared origin.

“We treated Lujain with love and respect,” Saba says. “We cared for her, forming a partnership with the therapist to address both her mental and dietary needs.”

Two specialties, one plan of care

That therapist is Islam Al-Qernawi, a mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) worker. MHPSS is the term humanitarian programs use for counseling and structured activities that help people process distress, often in places where formal therapy is out of reach.

“We helped her process all she went through using drawings, reading stories, writing her own tales, poetry, and group support sessions.”

Islam Al-Qernawi, MHPSS Worker

With Lujain, Islam’s work took forms a child could step into. “We helped her process all she went through using drawings, reading stories, writing her own tales, poetry, and group support sessions,” she says.

None of these is a treatment on its own. Together, they gave Lujain ways to express what had happened to her that did not depend on being asked direct questions about it. Over time, the team worked to shift the dark thoughts Lujain carried about her father’s death, and about the violence surrounding it, toward better ones. Her mother was part of that work, supporting her daughter at home between sessions. “They advised me to follow up,” her mother says, and she did.

Meanwhile, Saba continued to track Lujain’s nutrition and physical recovery. The two did not work in sequence, with one handing off to the other. They worked in parallel, sharing what they were seeing, so that progress in one area could be read in light of the other.

Recovery in small signs

Over three months, the changes were gradual and specific.

Lujain began asking for meals. Her weight, in Saba’s words, “improved a lot” with treatment and the vitamins she needed. In sessions, she became more engaged. “She participates and responds more,” the team observed. “She follows rules and focuses more at school.”

None of these signs belongs to a single specialty. A request for food is a nutritional event and a psychological one. Improved concentration reflects a body receiving what it needs and a mind less occupied by grief. This is why the moment Lujain asked for a meal carried such weight for the people caring for her. It was evidence that the two arcs of her recovery were moving together.

Why integrated care matters

Lujain is one child, and her experience should not be read as a description of every child in Gaza. But her case illustrates something clinicians in conflict settings encounter often, and that health services are not always organized to handle: physical and psychological needs that arrive as a single problem, presenting first through whichever symptom is easiest to measure.

What made the difference in Lujain’s care was not a new tool or technique. It was two health care workers recognizing that what each of them was seeing formed part of the same picture, and coordinating their care around it. A nutrition officer who notices that a child’s weight loss began after a bereavement has a colleague to turn to, and that colleague works alongside her rather than after her.

What changed

Recovery is a process, not an event. Lujain and her family are still displaced, living in a school. That has not changed. What has changed is that she eats, she draws and writes, she takes part, and she can concentrate in class.

“Lujain’s case is a true success story for us,” Saba says. Three months ago, her decline was recorded in numbers that told only part of the story. The rest was what the numbers could not show, and what two people caring for her chose to see together.

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MedGlobal in Gaza

MedGlobal is an international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency care, strengthens health systems, and builds local capacity in crisis-affected and underserved communities. Around 95 percent of its program delivery is carried out by local staff, working alongside national health workers and ministries of health.

In Gaza, where hospitals are non-functional or only partially functional, MedGlobal supports two maternity hospitals and provides a high volume of sexual and reproductive health services. Mental health and psychosocial support is treated as a core part of that work rather than an added service: it is integrated into medical points and primary care, and delivered through dedicated programs for children, adolescents, and conflict-affected families. Lujain’s care took place within this model, where a nutrition officer and a mental health worker could reach the same child through the same door.

Care like this depends on people who choose to stand with families in Gaza. Your support helps keep nutrition and mental health services running for children like Lujain. Learn more about how you can support our work in Gaza.

This October, healthcare leaders, humanitarian experts, medical professionals, advocates, and supporters from around the world will come together in Chicago for MedGlobal’s 2026 Annual Conference & Gala.

Taking place October 16–17, 2026, at the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk, this year’s theme, “Collaboration for Good: Innovation and Impact in Global Health,” reflects a simple reality: the challenges facing global health today cannot be solved by any one organization, sector, or country alone.

Across two days of discussions, expert panels, networking, and shared learning, the Conference will explore some of the most urgent challenges facing healthcare around the world — and, importantly, the solutions that can move us forward.

The two-day program will culminate in MedGlobal’s Annual Gala on the evening of October 17, bringing our community together to celebrate impact and mobilize support for healthcare around the world.

Two Days of Global Health Conversations

Across October 16 and 17, MedGlobal’s Annual Conference will convene experts from medicine, humanitarian response, policy, academia, advocacy, and global health.

Attendees will hear firsthand perspectives from people working across some of the world’s most challenging humanitarian and healthcare environments.

Discussions will explore emergency response, attacks on healthcare, displacement, maternal and newborn health, mental health, innovation, locally led humanitarian action, and what it takes to rebuild and strengthen health systems for the future.

Confirmed speakers include leading voices from humanitarian action, medicine, human rights, and global health, including *Kenneth Roth, Jeremy Konyndyk, Rabih Torbay, Leonard Rubenstein, Dr. Annie Sparrow, Dr. Steve Weine, Dr. John Kahler, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, Dr. Toni Biskup, and MedGlobal President *Dr. Zaher Sahloul, alongside other experts and practitioners.

Healthcare professionals can also earn 11.5 CME credits, combining professional development with an opportunity to connect with leaders and practitioners from across the global health community.

An Evening Celebrating Impact

Following the Conference on Saturday, October 17, the MedGlobal Annual Gala will bring our community together for an evening of stories, impact, and solidarity.

The Gala goes beyond the numbers to highlight the people at the heart of MedGlobal’s work — from healthcare professionals serving their own communities to patients and families whose lives are changed when quality healthcare becomes accessible.

Last year, more than 1,100 guests joined MedGlobal’s Gala. This year, we look forward to bringing our community together once again to celebrate what has been achieved and help make even more possible.

Collaboration That Creates Lasting Change

Since 2017, MedGlobal has worked across *33 countries, reaching more than *48 million people through emergency response, healthcare delivery, training, and health systems strengthening.

But lasting impact is never created by one organization alone.

It is created by local doctors, nurses, and health workers who continue serving their communities through extraordinary circumstances. By medical volunteers who share their expertise. By researchers and advocates who push for better solutions. By partners who invest in stronger health systems. And by supporters who make this work possible.

With 95% of MedGlobal’s team locally based, our approach centers on working alongside communities and national health professionals — responding to urgent needs today while strengthening the people and systems that will provide care tomorrow.

That is what Collaboration for Good means.

Be Part of the Conversation

The 2026 MedGlobal Conference & Gala is an opportunity to learn, connect, exchange ideas, build partnerships, and hear directly from those shaping the future of humanitarian and global health.

Whether you are a healthcare professional, humanitarian practitioner, policymaker, researcher, philanthropist, partner, or supporter, we invite you to join us in Chicago.

MedGlobal 2026 Annual Conference
October 16–17, 2026

MedGlobal Annual Gala
Evening of October 17, 2026

Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk | Chicago, Illinois

Join us for two days of collaboration, innovation, and impact — and be part of building a healthier future for communities around the world.

Following the devastating earthquake in Colombia, MedGlobal mobilized to support affected communities and help meet urgent healthcare needs.

The earthquake affected more than 135,000 people, disrupting communities and placing additional pressure on local health services. In the aftermath of a disaster, access to timely medical care can become increasingly difficult as families face displacement, damaged infrastructure, and interruptions to essential services.

MedGlobal’s response focused on reaching affected communities with medical support while working alongside local healthcare professionals and partners on the ground.

What Happened in Colombia?

The earthquake struck communities already facing challenges in accessing healthcare, leaving thousands of people affected and increasing the need for medical and humanitarian assistance.

Earthquakes can create health needs that extend far beyond the immediate injuries caused by the disaster. People may lose access to medications and routine treatment, health facilities can become overwhelmed or difficult to reach, and displaced families may face new health risks in the days and weeks that follow.

For vulnerable and remote communities, these disruptions can be particularly serious.

How Is MedGlobal Responding to the Colombia Earthquake?

Following the earthquake, MedGlobal worked to assess health needs and support affected communities with emergency medical assistance.

Our approach to disaster response is built around working with local healthcare professionals and organizations, ensuring that assistance responds to needs identified by the communities themselves.

By supporting locally led response efforts, MedGlobal can help address immediate healthcare needs while strengthening the capacity already present within affected communities.

Reaching Communities Where Healthcare Is Hardest to Access

Natural disasters do not affect everyone equally.

For people living in remote or underserved areas, accessing healthcare may already require traveling long distances. When an earthquake damages roads, infrastructure, homes, or health services, those existing barriers can become even greater.

This is why reaching communities with limited access to healthcare is an important part of MedGlobal’s emergency response.

Our teams and partners work to bring medical care closer to people who need it, prioritizing communities where existing health disparities can make the consequences of a disaster even more severe.

Emergency Response That Supports Local Healthcare

MedGlobal believes effective humanitarian response should strengthen, rather than replace, local capacity.

Local doctors, nurses, health workers, community organizations, and authorities are often the first to respond to a disaster, and they remain long after international attention moves elsewhere.

MedGlobal works alongside these local partners, combining emergency medical expertise with local knowledge to help communities respond, recover, and prepare for what comes next.

This is part of our broader commitment to locally led humanitarian healthcare and stronger health systems.

Standing With Communities in Colombia

Recovery from an earthquake does not end when the immediate emergency is over.

Families may continue to need healthcare, shelter, essential supplies, and support as they rebuild their lives. Health systems may also need time and resources to recover from the additional pressure created by the disaster.

MedGlobal remains committed to supporting communities affected by emergencies and ensuring that people facing crisis can access the healthcare they need.

From the first days of an emergency through recovery, our goal remains the same: to save lives today while helping build stronger healthcare for tomorrow.

Nine years ago, MedGlobal was founded with a clear vision: a world without disparities in health.

Today, MedGlobal is an international medical humanitarian organization delivering and strengthening healthcare in crisis-affected and underserved communities around the world. Since 2017, we have reached more than 48 million people across 33 countries through emergency response, primary healthcare, maternal and newborn health, mental health, medical training, and health systems strengthening.

As we mark our ninth anniversary, we are celebrating more than a milestone. We are celebrating the healthcare workers, volunteers, partners, supporters, and communities who have made nine years of impact possible — while looking ahead to everything still to come.

What Does MedGlobal Do?

MedGlobal works to ensure people can access quality healthcare regardless of where they are born, where they live, or where they are forced to flee.

Our work spans the full journey from emergency response to recovery and stronger health systems. When disaster or conflict puts lives at immediate risk, we help deliver lifesaving care. But our work does not end when the immediate emergency does.

We work alongside local healthcare professionals and communities to strengthen services, build clinical capacity, train health workers, and invest in healthcare systems designed to last.

Today, our work includes emergency medical response, primary healthcare, maternal and newborn health, mental health, health systems strengthening, medical education and training, healthcare infrastructure, and advocacy.

48 Million+ People Reached Since 2017

Since MedGlobal was founded, our programs have reached more than 48 million people.

Behind that number are millions of individual stories.

A mother receiving safe maternity care. A child being screened and treated for malnutrition. A patient receiving surgery when specialized care would otherwise be out of reach. A family accessing healthcare during displacement. A health worker gaining new skills and using them to care for thousands more people.

Every number represents a person — and every person deserves access to quality healthcare.

Why Locally Led Healthcare Matters

One of the principles at the heart of MedGlobal’s approach is that sustainable healthcare must be built with and led by the people who understand their communities best.

Today, 95% of MedGlobal’s team is locally based.

Local doctors, nurses, midwives, community health workers, and other professionals are not simply part of our programs — they are central to how MedGlobal works.

They understand their communities, languages, healthcare systems, and challenges. Most importantly, they remain long after an emergency leaves the headlines.

By investing in local leadership and clinical capacity, we can help meet urgent needs today while strengthening healthcare for tomorrow.

2,000+ Health Workers. 1,200+ Medical Volunteers.

Healthcare is never delivered by one person alone.

More than 2,000 health workers and team members help power MedGlobal’s work, supported by the people behind every hospital, clinic, mobile medical team, and humanitarian response.

Alongside them, more than 1,200 medical volunteers have contributed their expertise to MedGlobal’s work around the world.

Surgeons, physicians, nurses, anesthetists, specialists, and medical trainers work alongside national colleagues — treating patients, exchanging expertise, introducing new skills and technologies, and helping expand access to specialized care.

It is a model built around partnership rather than replacement.

From Emergency Response to Stronger Health Systems

Nine years of humanitarian healthcare have reinforced one important lesson: saving lives today and building stronger healthcare for tomorrow cannot be separate goals.

A community may urgently need medicines, doctors, or emergency surgery today. Tomorrow, it may need trained midwives, stronger primary healthcare, mental health services, reliable medical equipment, specialist training, or more resilient healthcare infrastructure.

That is why MedGlobal’s work extends beyond responding to individual crises.

Across 33 countries, we have worked with healthcare professionals, communities, institutions, and partners to strengthen the systems people depend on — helping communities move from emergency response toward recovery, resilience, and stronger healthcare.

Nine Years Made Possible by People

Our ninth anniversary belongs to everyone who has made this work possible.

It belongs to the healthcare workers who continue showing up for their communities under extraordinary circumstances.

It belongs to the medical volunteers who share their time and expertise.

It belongs to the partners who believe in strengthening locally led healthcare, the donors and supporters who make our programs possible, and the communities who place their trust in us.

Above all, it belongs to the millions of people whose strength and resilience continue to shape why we do this work.

Thank you.

This work has never been ours alone.

Year Ten Starts Now

Nine years gives us much to celebrate. But it also reminds us of how much remains to be done.

Around the world, millions of people still face barriers to essential healthcare. Conflict, disasters, displacement, and under-resourced health systems continue to put lives at risk. Healthcare workers continue to serve under extraordinary pressure, often without the resources they need.

As MedGlobal enters its tenth year, we remain committed to responding when emergencies happen while investing in what comes after: local healthcare workers, stronger health systems, sustainable solutions, and partnerships that create lasting impact.

Our vision remains the same as it was nine years ago:

A world without disparities in health.

And until everyone, everywhere has access to the healthcare they deserve, our work continues.

Nine years of impact. Year ten starts now.

Dear MedGlobal Supporter,

I recently had the opportunity to spend two weeks with my colleagues in Syria and I would like to share some of my impressions with you.

I last visited MedGlobal’s programs in Syria in November 2024, just weeks before the fall of the Al-Assad regime. No one was predicting that event. We were running programs in the only areas we could access, those under Turkish influence in the northwest. At that time, MedGlobal supported several hospitals, ran an intensive care unit, neonatal and pediatric wards and provided oxygen. We also delivered primary health and nutritional care to thousands crowded into displaced persons camps. In a clear sign of hope and recovery, those camps – like Kansafra which I visited then and now – are emptying as people return home or make their way to the cities to reset their lives.

Since my previous visit, both the context and MedGlobal’s action have shifted dramatically.

Within a few short days of the change in government on December 8, 2024, MedGlobal set its vision: we would be a key partner in rebuilding Syria’s health system. Through our Syria Healthcare Recovery initiative, we have taken extraordinary steps in this direction together with our government, health sector, donor and diaspora partners. Many of you are direct contributors and we are grateful.

During my visit, I saw our vision taking shape…

In Ibn Alnafis Hospital in Damascus, I met Seva, a school-aged girl with big cheeks and a broad smile. She was in the midst of her 4-hour dialysis session and hooked up to a state-of-the-art dialysis machine delivered by MedGlobal and funded by Syrian contributors including some of you. I was told by the hospital director that the old dialysis machines were only about 7% effective in filtering and cleansing blood. Today they reach 80-90% effectiveness, and one of those machines is changing Seva’s life. She would prefer to be in school, she told me, but she at least has a fighting chance at a normal life now.

At the University Hospital in Homs, I met a group of enthusiastic young dentistry students. Thanks to modern dental equipment, recently donated by MedGlobal, this cohort is learning the trade from an experienced diaspora dentist who flew in to treat patients and train students. The patient was getting top notch care as a new generation of dentists was being groomed.

Also in Homs, I visited the mental health support center for ex-detainees. With the fall of the former regime many thousands of prisoners were released, many of whom had experienced extreme deprivation and torture. Most of the ex-detainees are men who were separated from their communities and families for more than five years on average. Reintegration is not easy. MedGlobal’s program supports them with group and individual counseling and, where needed, psychiatric care, helping them cope and giving them the tools to reintegrate.

In Idlib, I visited the MedGlobal-supported Autism Care Center. For the 38 children in the program, the center gives them a chance to learn vital motor, language and social skills that will shape their futures. The center is in an old building but it is clean, bright and well organized. As I watch a child stacking yellow blocks, Dr Sharin, who runs the center, tells me she finds satisfaction in helping these children and their parents who would otherwise have very few support options.

All over Syria, I felt the pride and dedication of health workers fueled by the possibility of shaping a new post-war Syria. The health officials I met conveyed the same spirit, but when I asked about their priorities, it was not easy to sum up. There are so many.

That is why MedGlobal’s programs are so diverse, taking shape according to the needs and varied priorities of the Ministry of Health. We are running intensive care units, treating malnutrition, providing equipment like incubators and dialysis machines, rehabilitating hospital wards, mental health care, dentistry, surgery and much more.

We are committed. But the path to recovery will be long.

I visited Jobar, a large Damascus suburb, that still lies in rubble nearly absent of life. Four story apartment blocks collapsed to stacked sheets of concrete. School buildings bombed and gutted. An 1100 year-old mosque reduced to stones with the internal pillars still standing. We came across a single family; a man with his three young daughters. His wife died recently and he decided to move back to his old home. That home is a shell with no roof, but he has created a functional kitchen and sleeping spaces. At the back of the house, he started a small vegetable garden. This patch of budding green life amidst the endless broken concrete is an apt metaphor for Syria’s road to recovery.

The clean-up and rebuild will be immense. It will take years, but MedGlobal is committed for as long as our donors place their trust in us, and as long as it takes.

With Gratitude,

Joseph Belliveau

MedGlobal Executive Director