International Medical Corps will scale up health care and nutrition programs for vulnerable communities across the Middle East and Northern and Eastern Africa with a $2.3 million gift from GE.
“GE’s tremendously generous support will enable us to reach more communities in Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, as well as East Africa with lifesaving health services, nutrition, and training programs,” said Nancy A. Aossey, President & CEO of International Medical Corps. “With vulnerable communities in Libya and throughout the Middle East needing critical assistance, and with the ongoing drought and hunger emergency ravaging East Africa, GE’s timely award will help us expand vital health care and training services in both regions.”
“GE is proud to support the mission and work of International Medical Corps with this donation,” said Bob Corcoran, Vice President Corporate Citizenship, GE. “Our hope is that the funds will enable positive change for health care and nutrition for some of the most vulnerable populations in the world today.”
Having provided a comprehensive emergency response in Libya since the outbreak of conflict one year ago, International Medical Corps is now working with the Libyan Ministry of Health to help support and rebuild the damaged health care system. With GE’s support, International Medical Corps will focus on improving access to basic primary health care services through static and mobile clinics to reach displaced and other affected communities. International Medical Corps will continue to recruit medical staff, with a focus on nurses and midwives, to fill critical staffing gaps and conduct on-the-job training for health care staff.
Beginning in April 2011, Lebanon witnessed an influx of some 5,000 Syrians refugees into northern Lebanon. According to the United Nations, there are more than 6,000 displaced people concentrated primarily in the North and residing mostly with host families in difficult circumstances. GE’s contribution allows International Medical Corps to deliver health services through clinics and mobile medical units and provide emergency psychological first aid trainings to frontline responders.
Children in Yemen have been particularly hard hit by food insecurity which has been further exacerbated by recent political instability. International Medical Corps will establish two stabilization centers to treat and manage acute malnutrition and conduct community outreach and nutrition education.
Due to the ongoing drought and hunger emergency in East Africa, nearly a million Somalis have already streamed across borders to neighboring countries including Ethiopia and Kenya in search of basic necessities. Having worked in the region since 1991, International Medical Corps teams on-the-ground deployed immediately to reach severely malnourished people with lifesaving nutrition interventions in Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia and Kenya. True to the organization’s mission, teams are simultaneously implementing training programs for local health workers to maximize the impact and sustainability of their relief efforts.
With support from GE, International Medical Corps will be able to extend its reach into refugee camps for Somalis in Ethiopia and Kenya as well as local communities hard-hit by the hunger emergency in Somalia and Somaliland. International Medical Corps will focus on treatment and management of acute malnutrition in children under five and pregnant women, construction of latrines and wash rooms as well as promotion of hygiene, and provision of psychosocial support and counseling to GBV survivors, targeting areas in highest need. International Medical Corps will also provide primary health care services in Somalia through mobile and static clinics and address community-level water, sanitation and hygiene issues.
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