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 …
Five years into one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world, South Sudan is faced with yet another challenge: Ebola. With a healthcare system in ruins, the country—which shares a long and porous border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)—needs to prepare for the worst. Medical interventions, however effective, won’t be …
All of society—not just women and girls—benefits from gender equality. Study after study shows that communities, companies and economies grow stronger, more resilient and sustainable when women and girls are given the same opportunities as their male counterparts. Conversely, in places where women and girls face high levels of violence, paired with a lack of …
The International Medical Corps is an astounding organization that I have worked with for 10 years now as an ambassador and I have traveled far and wide—to the Congo, Haiti, Lebanon and Ethiopia. I went to South Sudan to see the effects that years of conflict, disease and malnutrition are having on the communities there.
Women’s economic empowerment is an indispensable component in the fight for gender equality. Sitting at the restaurant she runs, Rebecca Nyangot Biel—a 39-year-old mother of six from Nyal in South Sudan—is a striking example of why. Her unwavering spirit is inspiring, but it wasn’t always like this. She might be a business owner today, but …
Nyabong Puok is a 35-year-old South Sudanese mother of six living in Jewi Refugee Camp, in Ethiopia’s Gambella region. She is one of thousands of South Sudanese who fled their homes seeking a safe place where they and their families could settle and start a new life.
In a small classroom in Juba, male and female students listen attentively as Grace Losio launches into a lesson on what it takes to be a midwife. Like Losio, many of the students have come here with a passion.
As a child growing up in Liberia, “I always knew something was wrong,” says Gertrude Garway, International Medical Corps’ Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Manager in South Sudan. She watched as young girls around her were forced to marry much older men, who then raped and beat them. When these women or girls in forced marriages resisted …
“It has reached epidemic proportions.” This is how Sara Othow, Caseworker with International Medical Corps team in Aburoc, South Sudan, describes the level of sexual and gender-based violence (GBV) in the country. When I interviewed Sara about the situation in South Sudan earlier this year, she explained that several factors are behind the high levels …
Ours is a world that far too often tolerates violence against women and girls, making egregious transgressions disturbingly commonplace and pervasive. When a woman or girl experiences violence, sexual or otherwise, she needs comprehensive care to help heal the detrimental—and at times irreparable—physical and psychological consequences. International Medical Corps provides critical gender-based violence (GBV) treatment …