Saving babies, one mission at a time: Help us send care and healing to Yemen

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, joined to teach basic resuscitation measures, using simple, inexpensive equipment to provide life-saving care to newborns through a program called Helping Babies Breathe (HBB).

Dr. Harris taught HBB to midwives, doctors, and nurses in Sayoun General and Karah Women’s and Children’s Hospitals. In total, 54 providers were trained, 13 of whom were trained as instructors. Help volunteers, like Dr. Harris, return to conduct more life-saving medical training.

Yemen is the largest humanitarian disaster in the world, with more than 90% of its population in need of assistance, including more than 12 million children. Two-thirds of the population is at risk of starvation and the medical system has collapsed, leaving thousands to die of chronic diseases like diabetes, heart diseases and cancer. Since 2017, MedGlobal has stepped in to ease the suffering, sending 6 medical missions to Yemen in collaboration with local partners, treating more than 3,500 patients and training more than 290 Yemeni healthcare providers.

Your generous donation will help support MedGlobal’s two upcoming missions to Yemen in 2020.

$30 to provide one life-saving resuscitation kit. Help save a single life by donating $30.
$90 to provide a Helping Babies Breathe training kit. Help save countless lives by donating $90.
$150 to fully train one midwife in Helping Babies Breathe. Help train two midwives by donating $300

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MedGlobal is seeking medical volunteers to join Yemen mission

With 24.1 million people in need, Yemen is currently experiencing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. A protracted crisis characterized by widespread poverty, conflict, poor governance, and severe economic decline already existed in Yemen. The current crisis is the result of nearly three years of relentless conflict exacerbated by the severe pre-crisis vulnerabilities which have devastated the lives of millions in Yemen. Since the escalation of the conflict in 2015, humanitarian needs have increased sharply across all sectors, which has exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities, degraded community resilience and accelerated the collapse of public institutions. [1][2]

The Yemeni health system has been especially affected by this devastating crisis due to both health and non-health factors. The health system in Yemen was already fragile with poor quality services, especially in public health facilities, and the on-going crisis has made the situation significantly worse. Recent reports showed that only 50% of health facilities are fully functional. Doctors are only available in 18% of districts across the country, leaving 19.7 million people in Yemen in need of adequate access to healthcare – 14 million of which are in acute need.

MedGlobal is sending a team of medical professionals to Yemen from November 7-23, 2019. We are currently in need of instructors in Helping Babies Breathe to join us on this mission.

In addition to Helping Babies Breathe instructors, MedGlobal is seeking volunteers in the following specialties:

Surgery
Obstetrics/Gynecology
Pediatrics
Critical Care
Emergency Medicine
Infectious Disease
Anesthesia

If you are interested in joining this mission as an instructor, please contact volunteer@medglobal.org.

[1] Yemen: Humanitarian Needs Overview
[2] Yemen: Humanitarian Needs Overview Key Figures

MedGlobal’s medical mission to Yemen is in the final steps of preparation. Four physicians from Chicago will be embarking on a one week mission to provide medical care to Yemeni patients in different locations.

The purpose of this mission is to assess the humanitarian and medical situation, provide medical services to close to 2,000 patients, build relationships with the local medical community and NGOs, provide training to local healthcare workers, build capacity for telehealth for follow up, collect data for future research, and plan for sustainable programs in Yemen.

This mission is done in partnership with Projecthope and the Global Needs Foundation.

This will be the first of several missions to Yemen in the near future. More updates to come.