Activity Report

A RACE AGAINST TIME

Introduction by Rossella Miccio, President of EMERGENCY, in the 2023 Report

Wars and massacres, climate and humanitarian crises, borders where human beings and our humanity are wrecked, currents of new autocracies and old extremisms. The list could go on, and with a common denominator: the loss of meaning, of direction, of our foundations.

2023 began with a spotlight on the war in Ukraine and ended with the start of at least two more serious conflicts. In April, the eyes of the world briefly focused on Sudan, but soon turned away despite the spiralling humanitarian crisis, which includes the highest number of displaced people in the world: more than 10 million. The war also overwhelmed our activities in the country, but our colleagues, whom I thank profoundly for their humanity and professionalism, enabled us to provide continuity of care for our patients and even open new projects. We, who were present in the country to implement an innovative model of healthcare of excellence, found ourselves expanding the criteria for admission to war surgery, a field that has characterised our identity in other places.

Like Afghanistan, where, despite the formal conclusion of hostilities, the consequences of 40 years of constant warfare mean our presence is still necessary to guarantee access to life-saving treatment and professional training, and also to protect the human rights of women and men crushed between international neglect and local obfuscation. Human rights that are increasingly being treated as privileges everywhere around the world.

In 2023, our search and rescue ship Life Support sailed to defend the right to life and denounce the institutional vacuum that has normalised death and inequality through the legalisation of inaction. This year has been a race against time and, in fact, a race ‘inside’ wartime. A time in which fundamental humanitarian principles are subverted, hospitals, schools, shelters are bombed with impunity, weapons drown out voices, like ours, calling for a “Ceasefire now.”

As I write this letter, we are preparing to celebrate the 30th anniversary of EMERGENCY’s founding, at a time when it is more urgent than ever to give peace back its fullest meaning, freed from the polarisations of ‘with me or against me,’ because the only certainty of war is its victims, who – 9 times out of 10 – are civilians. We know this truth well, and that is why we do not resign ourselves to accepting it. In our hospitals, in our classrooms, in our squares, we demonstrate every day that it is possible to find time for peace, to find meaning, beyond our borders, in unity and equality.

Thanks to all those who continue to make EMERGENCY more than an anonymous collective, but a proactive community of people who tread an ethical and practical path of caring for others.