Emergencies and Disaster Relief

International Medical Corps rovided critically needed health care in more than 50 villages in Odisha State following Cyclone Phailin.

We mobilized a major relief effort in southern Somalia, working with teams in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia to deliver emergency nutrition, water and sanitation services to those affected by famine in the Horn of Africa.

When armed conflict breaks out in Libya, International Medical Corps is one of the first humanitarian groups to respond, providing emergency medical services administered at mobile field hospitals that we establish on the front lines. We evacuate injured patients by boat to Malta, then train local health workers. When the violence ends, we stay on to help rebuild health sector infrastructure and close gaps in key technical skills.

Following a fire that destroyed St. Jude Hospital in St. Lucia, International Medical Corps set up a temporary medical facility, rehabilitated the damaged hospital and provided continuing medical education for hospital staff.

International Medical Corps responded to a massive 8.8 quake off the coast of central Chile which caused extensive damage. Following the earthquake, a tsunami wreaked havoc in several large coastal communities, but the country’s strong national response capabilities limited the need for a major international relief effort.

International Medical Corps joined the international response to assist survivors of Cyclone Nargis, the worst natural disaster in the country’s history, which claimed over 100,000 lives and destroyed much of the densely-populated Irrawaddy Delta. We extended emergency care and relief supplies, then stayed on to provide farmers with the seed, tractors and fuel they need to start again.

International Medical Corps trained health workers and heightened HIV/AIDS awareness at the community level, including the promotion of voluntary testing, counseling, teaching ways to prevent mother-to-child transmission and encouraging reproductive health.

International Medical Corps responded to a crippling cholera epidemic, providing medical supplies to local partners. Launched long-term interventions including clean water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) promotion, as well as training programs for community-based health workers in cholera prevention and case management.

International Medical Corps provided emergency medical and mental health care to thousands of those displaced amid large-scale violence sparked by disputed national election results.

International Medical Corps responded across a broad front to a regional crisis in the heart of the Middle East as more than two million Iraqis fled the violence of sectarian warfare and a virulent insurgency in their homeland. Provided primary health care, including psychosocial support to both refugees and host populations as Iraqis reached Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

International Medical Corps distributed critical health care and medical supplies to local clinics, dispensaries and hospitals overwhelmed by the needs of nearly one million people displaced by the outbreak of war in southern Lebanon.

International Medical Corps launched training and education programs in both Dagestan and Chechnya and provided health care for those left vulnerable as a result of political turmoil.

International Medical Corps deployed domestically for the first time following Hurricane Katrina. Provided mobile medical units to assist the survivors and offered psychosocial support for those who lost loved ones, homes and their entire neighborhoods to the storm.

International Medical Corps responded within 12 hours of a major earthquake in northwestern Pakistan, delivering emergency care to survivors of a catastrophe that claims over 70,000 lives.

In the Indian Ocean tsunami’s aftermath, we strengthened a local Indonesian medical relief group, partnering to create an emergency preparedness and response program for disaster-prone areas. The program was soon tested, successfully limiting damage and loss of life caused by major earthquakes in Nias in 2006 and 2007.

International Medical Corps established the country’s first mental health program to assist tsunami survivors.

Among the first international relief organizations to reach hard-hit Aceh region following the giant Indian Ocean tsunami. We are also one of the few to remain until the acute emergency ends. Provided a broad range of health care, including emergency medicine, trauma surgery, maternal and child health in some of the worst-hit communities of a disaster that claims approximately 250,000 lives across the Indian Ocean region.

International Medical Corps assisted those displaced by fighting between differing ethnic and religious groups, focusing emergency relief programs on the needs of women and children displaced inside Darfur as well as those seeking refuge in eastern Chad and northern Central African Republic.

International Medical Corps provided emergency medical relief and nutrition services to the most vulnerable of an estimated one million civilians displaced in the violence sparked by a resurgence of the Lord’s Resistance Army. We responded again three years later with mobile health clinics as increased violence led to further deterioration of health services.

International Medical Corps is one of the first international relief organizations to start work in Iraq following the US-led invasion and the only one to operate in all 18 of the country’s governorates through the height of insurgent-led violence in the years that followed.

Following the terrorist bombing in Bali that claimed more than 200 lives, we provided emergency triage and lifesaving care for the wounded, then expanded our health care services and training to include counseling and educational messages on mental health, stress and trauma.

Amid major food crisis, International Medical Corps provided emergency nutrition program with community-based therapeutic feeding.

International Medical Corps provided emergency relief, health system development following the fall of the Taliban in the wake of 9/11. Many of those we initially trained in the 1980s rejoined us before taking leadership positions on the Ministry of Health.

International Medical Corps assisted many of the estimated 1 million civilians displaced by armed conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Our medical teams used mobile units and existing health centers to treat those in need. We also provided supplementary feeding to 50,000 in a dozen remote villages.

International Medical Corps established emergency health care in Maluku and later in East Timor amid the violence that led to East Timor’s independence in 2002. We provided maternal and child health care, rebuilt a national health care training center in Dili, East Timor’s capital.

International Medical Corps provided primary health care, psychosocial and mental health support and public health outreach on tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS prevention to communities in Ingushetia caught up in the Russo-Chechen war.

International Medical Corps provided healthcare and trained new healthcare workers for residents of the war-torn country. We also screened demobilized combatants, including child soldiers, who had been tortured and forced to join rebel ranks.

International Medical Corps implemented health programs for nearly 300,000 displaced inside the country as a result of chronic ethnic and civil strife that first began seven years earlier with the Soviet Union’s breakup and Georgia’s independence.

International Medical Corps was among the first humanitarian groups to enter Kosovo after the NATO bombings. Our mobile medical clinics provided emergency and primary health care to survivors of ethnic cleansing there and elsewhere in the Balkans, including Albania and Macedonia.

Following terrorist attack on U.S. embassy in Nairobi, International Medical Corps trained over 550 local health staff as medics for emergency response.

International Medical Corps offered emergency health care to those displaced by civil war.

International Medical Corps provided emergency health care in remote villages to survivors of Hurricane Mitch.

International Medical Corps helped renovate a major hospital, reactivate the surgical unit and implement an immunization training program for over 1,300 children.

International Medical Corps responded within a few days to the convulsion of genocide, provided emergency health care to survivors. With many medical specialists lost in the chaos, we set up a training program that helped lay the groundwork for a new health care sector.

Drawn by brutal ethnic cleansing and civilian suffering accompanying the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, International Medical Corps began working in Europe for the first time. We conducted emergency medicine training for physicians, created an ambulance system and deployed mobile clinics. We also launched our first mental health program to support those with psychological trauma resulting from the war, focusing on young children and teenagers.

International Medical Corps developed nearly 30 wells on a water resource project in Namibia, then transfered operational responsibility to local officials, creating a greater measure of self-reliance.

Working initially from Thailand, we developed maternal- and child-health training materials for Cambodian refugees. Later in the year, we launched a training program inside Cambodia to promote positive health behavior, deliver maternal- and child-health services, and refer patients for substantive care.

Our emergency relief teams went to Somalia as the first American non-governmental organization in the country. We braved civil war to deliver desperately needed war-related surgery to civilians injured in the capital, Mogadishu, then followed up with a nutrition program for those caught up in an ensuing famine that grips vast areas of central Somalia. The speed and reach of our response furthered our reputation as an organization prepared to go where we are needed most.

International Medical Corps ventured into dangerous areas of Angola where few relief agencies were willing to go, delivering emergency healthcare to civilians trapped on both sides of the countries civil war. Our work expanded after we successfully convinced the warring parties to allow us to reach those in greatest need. Locally trained vaccinators immunized thousands of children and women against preventable disease. In addition, we expanded to build self-reliance with nutrition and agriculture programs.

Our teams deployed to Honduras, providing reconstructive surgery and healthcare for those displaced by armed conflict in Nicaragua.

Unable to stand by and watch an entire people deprived of basic healthcare, International Medical Corps was born with a pioneering approach: train Afghan civilians as advanced medics, then support and supply them as they return to Soviet-occupied Afghanistan to treat residents in their home communities. The unprecedented program was a success, establishing our work and the important role of training in humanitarian assistance.