Note from the editor: In this article, published to observe Human Rights Day, International Medical Corps reflects on the importance of health as a human right. We also share some examples from the frontlines, where our committed healthcare workers put theory into practice, helping people who have had their lives ripped apart by conflict to …
“I want to name her Joury [rose], after my favorite flower. Hopefully, her days will be rosier than mine.” This is what Rania* told the doctor when she delivered her third daughter and was asked to name her. Rania is a 33-year-old displaced Syrian residing in a small town in Southern Lebanon. She has three …
In the spring of 2015, one year after joining International Medical Corps in Yemen as a Health and Nutrition Program Assistant, Doa’a was forced to flee her home with her family because their neighborhood was no longer safe. On that day, Doa’a became an internally displaced person (IDP)—an experience that has given her unique insights …
Last year, I visited Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan as part of a project that aimed to highlight maternal health, as well as the plight—and resilience—of refugee women. International Medical Corps runs the only fully equipped hospital inside Azraq Camp, where staff members deliver an average of 120 healthy babies each month. During my week-long …
The UN’s refugee agency recently warned that, for the first time since records began, the number of people who have been forced from their homes has exceeded 70 million. Half of the world’s refugees originate from just three countries: Syria, South Sudan and Afghanistan. Syria alone accounts for 6.3 million of them, making it one …
My trip to Jordan with International Medical Corps gave me an opportunity to see a side of the Syrian refugee crisis that I did not expect: happiness. Whether it emanated from the faces of children at the Makani Centers in Amman or Irbid, or the new mom in Azraq camp who treasured feeling safe with …
By official estimates, 1.4m people have poured into Jordan from Syria’s civil war alone. Disaster-relief groups like the International Medical Corps, which runs the Jabal Amman clinic, came to help.
Syria’s relentless civil war enters its ninth year this month, with fighting beginning to wane in what has become this century’s bloodiest, most brutal conflict. But as the violence ebbs, the humanitarian crisis left in its wake will only grow in the period ahead. The fighting, which has claimed an estimated 500,000 lives, has caused …
American photojournalist Marissa Roth traveled to Jordan in December 2018 as part of her One Person Crying: Women and War photography project. In camp as well as urban settings, in International Medical Corps health clinics and women’s centers, Marissa visited with multiple Syrian refugees whose lives have been torn apart by a brutal eight-year war. She gathered …
In the face of seemingly intractable social challenges, it can be hard to believe in change. But to a frontline health worker like Beatrice Essebe, International Medical Corps’ Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Supervisor in Cameroon, change is not only possible, it is an inevitability and provides a purpose. Says Beatrice: “There is nothing greater than when …