#Snapshots April 2024

From Sudan to Venezuela, see the impact you’ve had this month as a supporter of our work.

Providing Health Services in Venezuela

Children receive routine check-ups from our mobile team.

Venezuela’s severe economic crisis has weakened its healthcare system, with many health facilities lacking the basic supplies needed to provide primary healthcare and to prevent and treat illnesses.

Community health workers lead training provided during visits by our mobile medical unit.

In addition to providing staff to conduct medical consultations, we’ve helped to strengthen the health system in Venezuela by providing training for local healthcare staff. Today, we’re expanding and improving the quality of our reproductive health program by integrating maternal, newborn and child healthcare into the services our mobile medical units are providing in five remote communities in Bolivar state.

Assisting Children in Yemen

Yemen is experiencing one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises. Almost a decade of conflict, compounded by economic collapse, natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic, have left some 80% of the country struggling to put food on the table and access essential services.

Children receive a malnutrition test to determine their nutritional status.

In Yemen, childhood is a casualty of conflict. But we believe that every child deserves a chance at a healthy future. We’re providing essential healthcare — nutrition support, vaccinations and medical consultations — to support vulnerable children. Our programs ensure access to care, treatment and support to address malnutrition and prevent child deaths.

Children eat Plumpy’Nut, a therapeutic food used as a treatment for malnutrition.

Helping Refugees in South Sudan

A woman gets her blood pressure checked by our staff.

In response to the crisis in Sudan, we have stationed an emergency response team in the border town of Renk, South Sudan, where thousands of people have fled. Our team is providing healthcare services, gender-based violence prevention and support services, and more at the border.

A pregnant refugee receives an ultrasound (left) and staff members carry a disabled woman to our clinic.

The conflict in Sudan has surpassed the one-year mark, and the country now has the world’s largest number of displaced people — and the most significant child-displacement crisis. Click the button below to learn more about how we support refugees and returnees in the area.

Fighting Diseases with Vaccines

Every year, 4 million deaths worldwide are prevented by childhood vaccinations, according to the CDC. Unfortunately, many people — especially children — lack access to essential immunizations, leaving them at risk of death, disability and illness from preventable diseases.

That’s why we commemorate World Immunization Week when it is recognized each year, from April 24–30. And it’s why, over our 40-year history, International Medical Corps has been at the forefront of disease prevention, ensuring that the most vulnerable people receive the vaccines — and protection — they need.

Fatima prepares to be vaccinated at one of our health centers in Afghanistan (left), while a man receives a COVID-19 vaccination in Pakistan.

Our teams have supported vaccination programs in response to wide-scale outbreaks, including Ebola, cholera and COVID-19. We’re also committed to delivering routine vaccines as part of our everyday health programs. Whether it’s protection against measles, polio or tuberculosis, we work every day to ensure that children everywhere have access to essential immunizations.

A child in Cameroon receives the cholera vaccine (left), and members of our staff get ready to vaccinate a group of children in Yemen.

In the past four years alone, we’ve vaccinated nearly 3 million people against measles, COVID-19, hepatitis B, tetanus and other dangerous diseases. Click the link below to read some of our vaccination stories from Africa and the Middle East.

Distributing Hygiene Kits in Sudan

Staff members distribute kits (shown in detail at right) to the community.

We have worked in Sudan since 2004, providing health, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene services. In response to the conflict that erupted in April 2023, we have carried out an in-depth needs assessment of internally displaced persons (IDPs) to shed light on the origins, displacement trajectories, and access to healthcare, nutrition and WASH services for the IDPs sheltered throughout the country.

Staff members fill the hygiene kits with essential items.

In addition to sending mobile health and nutrition teams to provide healthcare services, we recently distributed family hygiene kits to IDPs to nearly 200 households and plan to reach at least 300 more.

Treating Malnutrition in Somalia

Food security remains a major concern in multiple areas of Somalia, where pastoral community livestock has been reduced by prolonged drought, and residents have little left to sell for food.

An International Medical Corps doctor assesses a child for signs of malnutrition (left), and members of the community participate in nutrition education sessions.

International Medical Corps continues to help people in regions experiencing emergency levels of acute food insecurity, providing health and nutrition screening, food rations and community education about topics such as healthy infant and young-child feeding practices. We continue to work to strengthen local capacity by training and educating health workers.

Responding to the Humanitarian Need in Gaza

In response to the dire humanitarian need, we set up a 140-bed field hospital in southern Rafah — now Gaza’s second-largest trauma-care center. Our staff members care for as many as 800 civilians each day and, so far, have conducted more than 1,400 surgeries and delivered more than 500 babies.

Volunteers and staff prepare for the field hospital opening.

In early April, we moved the hospital to a new location to accommodate shifting needs. While we moved, the original hospital remained operational, and our skilled staff were able to help people in both locations during the transition.

Our staff stock the field hospital with medicine and other essential supplies (left) and children receive psychological support.

With no immediate end to the conflict in sight, the need for health and related services in Gaza remains high, so we are expanding our services and are working to open another hospital in central Gaza to reach as many families as possible.

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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 9,000 staff members around the world, 97% of whom are locally hired. Since our founding, we have operated in more than 80 countries, and have provided more than $4.4 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.