“Heavy is the Weight”
“If I don’t find work, we don’t eat”, says Hayat. With the compounding crisis in Lebanon still ongoing, female-headed households are among the most affected, as they must balance domestic and childcare responsibilities while also being the primary breadwinner. “The...
M stands for Midwifery
“We came to Lebanon with zero. We had to restart life all over again. It took us so long to rebuild, however lately it feels like it’s all falling apart piece by piece,” says Fadia. Our communications team in Lebanon joined Solange, Medair’s Community Midwife on a...
Somalia: When displacement becomes the new normal
Halima* remembers the day she and her family were forced to leave their village. ‘I fled the conflict in 2017,’ she says. ‘I lost everything and left some of my belongings.’ Like many of the communities we support in Somalia, Halima’s village is affected by conflict,...
CEO BLOG: A word on Medair’s response in Ukraine
As the situation in Ukraine continues to shock the world, our emergency response team is hard at work both inside the country and at the Polish border. We are supporting the massive grassroots volunteer effort helping refugees and providing physical and mental health...
Ukraine Crisis: The search for safety
Ihor Hirchak smiles easily, but that doesn’t erase the sadness in his eyes. As the Deputy Mayor of Ternopil, Ukraine, his days are filled with solving problems and finding ways for his city to help the thousands of people who are fleeing their homes. ‘Life has changed...
How solar power transforms access to water in Yemen
In Yemen, water is scarce. Before the current conflict, Yemen was considered one of the world’s most severely water-stressed countries. This situation has worsened. Less than half of the population has access to a clean water source, with severe effects on people’s...
Returning To No Water
As the crisis enters its 11th year in Syria, a lot of areas have been declared safe for return. People returning find the homes they’ve once lived in dilapidated or demolished. This means families need to pool their resources to rebuild their homes. A lot of families...
Simple Yet Effective: Responding pre-emptively to predictable risks
Looking outward to the distant horizon, a long, flat line stretches across the land, separating the sky and earth as if you’re looking out at sea. In place of blue and roaring waves, a cracked, brown dirt meets the sky—seemingly, never ending. White tarpaulin...
The climate crisis is a humanitarian crisis
Every day that goes by, the evidence mounts up to form an overwhelmingly clear picture: climate change is now the single biggest humanitarian threat facing the world in the future. We are already seeing its direct effects in our work. Extreme weather events are...
The pandemic two years on: ‘We’ve had to rethink every aspect of our work’
You’ve been a humanitarian for over 20 years. How have the past two years been different? The pandemic has led to a major step back globally in all areas of health and nutrition. Surveys show the impact is pretty much across the board: cancers have increased,...