In northern Mali, our teams are sanitizing and disinfecting busy public places, such as mosques and health facilities, to help protect communities from COVID-19.

#Snapshots June

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

Continuing the Fight Against COVID-19 Worldwide

COVID-19 cases are rising globally and our teams worldwide are still hard at work in the fight against the virus.

Responding in the United States

Our staff in the United States continues to work tirelessly to provide lifesaving support to communities in need. We’re providing medical surge support to hospitals and nursing homes in Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York and Puerto Rico. We are also partnering with Texas A&M University’s Coastal Bend Health Education Center to deliver 10 virtual training sessions on infection prevention and control (IPC)and medical surge.

In response to COVID-19, International Medical Corps and its disaster relief partner Bloomberg Philanthropies are donating 200,000 masks to underserved communities in South Carolina.

Supporting Communities Around the World

Globally, we continue to distribute personal protective equipment (PPE) and other IPC items to the healthcare facilities we support, and provide training and support to frontline healthcare workers on the proper use of PPE and how to prevent and treat COVID-19. Additionally, our facilities continue to screen patients for COVID-19 and raise awareness through traditional and remote activities throughout communities.

Highlights of Our Global Response

We’ve been responding to COVID-19 in Mali since late February. So far, we have trained 50 health workers in the Timbuktu health district on COVID-19 prevention and response. We also have provided hygiene materials to all of the health centers that we support in Mali, as well as medications for the COVID-19 treatment center in Timbuktu. We’ve been instrumental in a major effort to sanitize public spaces in Timbuktu, including 10 mosques and eight health facilities.

Our team in Lebanon is raising awareness about COVID-19 and providing training to frontline workers on psychological first-aid. More than 100,000 people have been screened for COVID-19 symptoms at our supported facilities, and we have distributed more than 500,000 PPE and IPC items.

In Burundi, we’ve been distributing handwashing stations in Muyinga. A foot pump for water and one for soap enable no-touch handwashing, an important infection-prevention measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because we already have been working closely in Burundi with the Ministry of Health and other key stakeholders to protect the country from Ebola, we have been able to leverage these preparedness activities to support the country’s COVID-19 contingency plans.

And because there is a growing global concern over the lack of COVID-19 testing in Yemen, we have continued to expand our efforts to train health workers, support healthcare facilities and work with the Ministry of Public Health to distribute COVID-19 awareness messaging in the Middle East’s poorest country.

Working Together to Stop Ebola

At the end of June, the Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was officially declared over by the DRC Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization.

As we celebrate the end of the outbreak, our attention is now shifting to the burgeoning outbreak in Mbandaka, DRC. But we already know one thing for sure — together, we can stop Ebola.

Celebrating Refugees Around the World

On June 20, we celebrated World Refugee Day by sharing the stories of refugees who are recovering and rebuilding around the world.

From Lebanon to Cameroon, many courageous refugees are now serving their new communities by providing lifesaving care and information.

Helping Health Workers Fight COVID-19 — with Bicycles

In rural Zimbabwe, village health workers often struggle to reach remote communities with health services and education — needs that have become even more urgent during the COVID-19 pandemic. To support village health workers on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19, World Bicycle Relief — a Chicago-based nonprofit — recently donated 300 bicycles to Amalima, a health and nutrition consortium in which International Medical Corps participates.

The bicycles will help village health workers in four of Zimbabwe’s health districts bring COVID-19 prevention messages to remote communities that are most vulnerable to the pandemic.

Providing Lifesaving Care in Sudan

South Kordofan is one of Sudan’s 18 provinces, located in the southernmost part of the country, with South Sudan as its neighbor. Overshadowed by the long-running and devastating Darfur War, South Kordofan — a region only partly controlled by the Sudanese government and engaged in a complex conflict of its own — remains relatively unknown to many people around the world. But we’re there, providing health, nutrition, and water, sanitation and hygiene services.

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