The View from the Ground: Our Tigray crisis response in Sudan
In November 2020, an escalating conflict in the Tigray region of Ethiopia began forcing tens of thousands of families from their homes. Many sought refuge in neighbouring Sudan, where we recently re-opened a country programme to provide relief to families feeling the...
Working in the field? There’s an App for that!
Heading to the field for a humanitarian assignment? You’re probably going to be far from your loved ones, working long and very stressful hours, and sometimes spending extended stretches of time where infrastructure or insecurity limits your options for entertainment...
CEO Blog: What it takes to track COVID-19 outbreaks on our teams
Often that means the people we serve. In Afghanistan, for example, my colleagues work with mothers like Lalma, teaching them how to use special measuring tapes that can determine if their children are malnourished and if they are in need of treatment from Medair’s...
Hope on the horizon: Returning to Sudan
It was the end of 12 years in the country, during which we provided support to families affected by decades of conflict. In the way that so often happens when we close a country programme, our hearts remained in Sudan long after we left. The Return to Sudan In...
A Child with a Baby
I met Fatima at the clinic during a women’s gathering with Kholod, Medair’s Psychosocial Support Officer in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. After the lockdown lifted in June, Medair teams gradually resumed face-to-face sessions after more than two months of supporting...
Phasing Out from Iraq
For days, news of horrific attacks in the nearby Sinjar region had dominated the global headlines, and thousands of people had fled violence. We ran rapid needs assessments and coordinated with other humanitarian actors to deliver urgently needed shelter, safe water,...
South Sudan: Let’s not neglect mental health in humanitarian aid
After years of recent conflict and forced displacement, many South Sudanese people carry deep psychological scars. The trauma may be invisible to the human eye. Yet, it is everywhere. Only few have been left unscathed. In this scarred nation, with a population of over...
CEO Blog: An Emergency Within A Crisis
When we arrived in Lebanon in 2012, we came to serve people like Ramia. Ramia is from the city of Homs in neighbouring Syria. Like millions of others, she fled bombing and violence in her home country and sought refuge in Lebanon, hoping she and her son would be safe....
“I go where there is a need for me to go” – Two midwives serving in South Sudan
South Sudan has an astonishingly high maternal mortality rate. In the world’s youngest country, the risk of a South Sudanese woman dying during pregnancy or childbirth is as high as one in seven. Poor infrastructure, distance from health facilities, and little or no...
Returning to Yemen
In Yemen Medair teams travel up to four hours to reach communities with health, nutrition, and water, hygiene and sanitation services. Today I was one of the first international staff members to fly back into Yemen on a UN chartered flight, since borders closed to...