Reaching Families After the Devastating Floods in Nepal
On August 26, a glacial collapse near the Nepal–China border sent a powerful wall of water, ice, mud and debris rushing down the Bhote Koshi and Trishuli rivers. In a matter of minutes, the landscape changed forever.
Homes, roads and bridges were swept away, leaving communities isolated and thousands of families without the essentials they need to survive and recover. With damaged infrastructure making some areas difficult to reach, responders faced an urgent challenge getting healthcare and emergency supplies to affected families.
International Medical Corps is working through trusted local partners in Nepal to help restore healthcare and deliver lifesaving supplies to affected communities in Rasuwa and Nuwakot. Through these partners, we’re providing three health facilities serving an estimated 310,000 people with essential medicines, medical equipment and supplies, working to establish temporary treatment spaces and sending mobile health teams where communities remain cut off.
Learn more about our response to the floods in Nepal.
Protecting Communities from Ebola—Even After Death
When someone dies from Ebola, the danger isn’t over. The virus remains highly contagious in the body, making traditional funeral practices potentially dangerous for families and communities. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the fastest-growing and second-largest Ebola outbreak in history is spreading rapidly, our teams are helping ensure that people who have died are treated with both safety and dignity.
Our teams carefully decontaminate bodies and surrounding areas, prepare body bags and ensure that families can observe important religious and cultural traditions wherever safely possible. Community health workers are also helping families understand the risks of Ebola and the importance of safe burials, while addressing fears and misinformation that can prevent people from seeking care.
This work is about more than preventing the spread of Ebola. It’s about protecting families while respecting what they have lost.
Find out more about our Ebola response.
Giving Mothers in Sudan Access to Emergency Care
For Fathia, a 35-year-old mother in Sudan, pregnancy had brought both love and loss. She had already undergone four caesarean sections and lost two babies after complications and delays in reaching surgical care. When severe bleeding threatened her life during her fifth pregnancy, she faced a terrifying reality: she needed emergency surgery, but could not afford the cost of treatment and transportation.
That changed when Fathia reached Shangil Tobaya Hospital in August. We had recently restored and solarized the hospital’s operating room and helped provide the staff, supplies and equipment needed to offer free emergency surgery. Our surgical team quickly performed an emergency caesarean section. Fathia survived—and her baby boy, Omran, was born safely.
Fathia was the first patient to undergo surgery in the restored operating room—but she won’t be the last. By providing Shangil Tobaya Hospital with medical staff, medicines, equipment, training and essential infrastructure, we’re helping make lifesaving care available to families who have few other options.
Bringing a Field Clinic to Life in Venezuela
What does it take to bring healthcare to a community after a major disaster?
In Venezuela, it took 150 pallets, 35 tons of equipment and a team working around the clock. After two devastating earthquakes struck northern Venezuela in June, our first responders mobilized an EMT Type 1 field clinic—an outpatient facility capable of treating more than 100 patients a day—to help meet the urgent need for medical and mental health services.
Getting the clinic there was only the beginning. Our teams coordinated the shipment of tents, generators, and water and sanitation supplies from the US to Venezuela, then transformed an earthquake-damaged bus terminal in Catia La Mar, La Guaira state, into a functioning medical facility. They set up treatment spaces, a pharmacy, safe water systems and sanitation facilities, working with local partners to get the site operational within 48 hours. While teams worked late into the night, the clinic began taking shape piece by piece.
Today, the EMT is seeing about 140 patients every day. Keeping it running requires an effort as intensive as the setup: our teams are constantly purchasing medicines and medical supplies through local vendors and an international supply airbridge to ensure that the clinic can continue to meet demand.
Our teams also are developing training curricula for healthcare and non-healthcare staff across six health facilities in the region. By strengthening the capacity of such local facilities, International Medical Corps is helping to ensure the continuation of quality healthcare long after EMT operations conclude.
You can help us save even more lives by supporting our work in Venezuela.
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International Medical Corps is a global first responder that delivers emergency medical and related services to those affected by conflict, disaster and disease, no matter where they are, no matter the conditions. We also train people in their communities, providing them with the skills they need to recover, chart their own path to self-reliance and become effective first responders themselves. Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, we are a nonprofit with no religious or political affiliation, and now have more than 8,000 staff members around the world, 96% of whom are locally hired. Since our founding, we have operated in more than 80 countries, and have provided more than $4.2 billion in emergency relief and training to communities worldwide.
Our staff includes experts in emergency medicine, infectious disease, nutrition, mental health, maternal and infant health, gender-based violence prevention and treatment, training, and water, sanitation and hygiene, all within the humanitarian context.
To arrange an interview on or off the record, contact our Media Relations team at media@internationalmedicalcorps.org.