The histories and geographies of Syria and Yemen are portraits in contrast among the nations of the modern Middle East. Syria has been central to the region since biblical times, and remains so today. Some 1,500 miles southwest, Yemen is a politically weak peripheral player, sitting at the bottom of the Arabian Peninsula, marginalized by …
When Hurricane Dorian hit her home, Christine Marshall—a nurse from Freetown, Grand Bahama, who works for the Public Hospitals Authority—says she and her two children were the luckiest in their neighborhood: they only had to endure four inches of standing water in the house. Christine remembers empty boats floating between homes, and—thinking about the storm …
One day, there may be a cure for coronavirus, known as COVID-19—but currently, there’s no cure for paranoia about the disease. If you’ve been watching the headlines lately, you’re likely a bit freaked out about this new virus spreading across China and beyond—and perhaps suspiciously eyeing your friends and neighbors returning from Asian cruises. With …
32-year-old Fadumo Mohamed is from Lower Shabelle, a region in southern Somalia, not far from the capital Mogadishu. Named after the river that farming communities have relied on for centuries, the area is a microcosm for the multi-layered crisis that has been battering Somalia and its people since the 1990s. The situation in Lower Shabelle …
Kristin Hortman, a native of Mainz, Germany, recently volunteered for International Medical Corps in Grand Bahama as part of our response to Hurricane Dorian. Here, she remembers her experiences serving the people of Grand Bahama as a volunteer pharmacist. From mid-October until December 2019, I volunteered for International Medical Corps and Pharmacists Without Borders, ensuring …
The study, drawn from data gathered during West African Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in 2014–2015, involved 360 patients diagnosed with the virus. The results found that the mortality rate among patients given the antibiotic fell to just more than half—54.7%, compared to a death rate of more than 73% among those who did not …
January 2020 marked eight years since a violent conflict broke out in the west African nation of Mali, between the government and several insurgent groups in the north, throwing the country into a spiral of seemingly never-ending violence. Though a peace agreement was signed in 2015, conflict in one shape or another has persisted, with …
There’s little space for youth recreational activities at the Khazir displacement camp in northern Iraq, nor is there a place where adolescents can relax and enjoy other informal social interaction. Limited resources and the lack of opportunities to engage in friendly competitive activities have added to the emotional burden for “tweens,” young teens and near-adult …
Irbid is a city in northern Jordan, located 43 miles north of the capital Amman and only a short drive from the Syrian border. I recently returned from Irbid, where—among other things—International Medical Corps runs a maternity ward, thanks to the support of the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO). The facility supports …
