Nigeria

In Borno, where the Boko Haram insurgency continues to drive instability and displacement, International Medical Corps is working in the state capital, Maiduguri, as well as in nine local government areas (LGAs) in the northern, central and southern parts of the state, to provide lifesaving assistance to vulnerable host community members and families forced from their homes by violence. We also provide emergency nutrition, WASH, and GBV prevention and response services, and serve as a key actor supporting polio eradication efforts across Borno State, including areas that have just become accessible to humanitarian organizations.

Nutrition and Food Security

Nigeria is home to one of the most widespread and severe food crises in the world, as the ongoing armed conflict involving organized groups (including Boko Haram) has destroyed livelihoods, livestock and agricultural lands, and eroded families’ ability to feed themselves. Sizable pockets of northern Nigeria are expected to experience food shortages. For many, those shortages pose the threat of extreme, famine-like conditions, while hundreds of thousands of children could face life-threatening malnutrition. International Medical Corps is currently providing lifesaving treatment for moderate and severe acute malnutrition for children under 5 in Borno State. This work is supported by teams of community volunteers who go house to house to screen children for malnutrition and refer cases as needed to our nutrition outpatient treatment centers—jointly managed by International Medical Corps and State Ministry of Health staff—and stabilization center for further care. The community volunteers also provide training for mothers and caretakers on healthy infant and young-child feeding practices, especially among pregnant and nursing mothers. Together with the UN World Food Program (WFP), International Medical Corps is preventing malnutrition and improving household food security by distributing nutrient-dense, ready-to-use supplementary food to children under 5, well as oil and vitamin-fortified flour to pregnant and breastfeeding women. These distributions reach thousands of people in Borno State— all of whom are internally displaced.

Immunization Programs

After more than two years without any cases, two children were reported paralyzed with wild poliovirus in Borno State in August 2016—a tragic ripple effect of the conflict, which has disrupted families’ access to routine immunizations and healthcare services. International Medical Corps—as part of the Core Group Partners Project, a consortium of NGOs supporting polio eradication in seven countries—is working in Borno and Kano states to vaccinate children under 5 years old against polio. In addition to supporting state emergency operations centers in Borno and Kano, International Medical Corps supports vaccination campaigns and routine household outreach and monitoring to ensure that caregivers adhere to their children’s immunization schedules. The immunization campaigns, which International Medical Corps supports alongside the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health, have provided vaccines to tens of thousands of children in Borno and Kano states. Through the efforts of the Core Group Partners Project and national eradication efforts, Nigeria was declared free of wild poliovirus in August 2020.

Healthcare

International Medical Corps is working with the state Ministry of Health to make healthcare services available to internally displaced families and vulnerable host community residents. In close collaboration with the states’ health departments, through state Primary Health Development Agency offices in Kano and Borno, International Medical Corps supports health facilities to ensure that there are strong community-based surveillance and referral systems in place to respond to outbreaks of disease, including cholera, Lassa fever and COVID-19. International Medical Corps is also working to build the capacity of community-based organizations to strengthen existing local structures in both Kano and Borno.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

International Medical Corps is providing access to drinking water, and improving hygiene and sanitation, to nearly 67,000 people across six local government areas (LGAs) in Borno State. Our teams work in camps providing housing for internally displaced families to improve and increase access to potable water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. This includes rehabilitating boreholes fitted with hand pumps, restoring small water-distribution systems with solar-powered submersible pumps, chlorinating water at the source and in households, and disseminating key hygiene messages. We also improve overall sanitation and hygiene in communities by constructing and managing latrines and showers, providing trash cans and creating drainage systems to improve community hygiene and prevent vector-borne diseases. This infrastructure is complemented by teams of community volunteers who teach families about the importance of personal hygiene in health and how to prevent potentially deadly waterborne diseases, such as cholera.

Gender-based Violence

International Medical Corps works to prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV) cases in six LGAs of Borno State. Community volunteers reached more than 250,000 people in 2020 with basic information on GBV and its consequences, as well as on services available to them, including women-friendly spaces (WFS) that offer healing and empowerment for vulnerable women and GBV survivors. The WFS are safe environments, usually situated in centers where women and girls can socialize and make small handcrafts, such as embroidered traditional caps and beaded handbags, that they can sell to generate income for their families. Our case workers are also in the centers to provide one-on-one comprehensive case management, offer counseling services and facilitate referrals as needed for specialized and more advanced care. International Medical Corps also trains healthcare workers from the government and partner agencies on the case management, the referral pathway and available legal services, to ensure that survivors receive appropriate care when referred by case workers and volunteers.