Healthcare for Victims of the War in Iraq, care and rehabilitation services in the districts of Sulaymaniyah and Nineveh
Since April 2018, EMERGENCY has been implementing the ‘Healthcare for the Victims of the War in Iraq’ project. Funded by the EU this project guarantees healthcare and rehabilitation services for people affected by the recent conflict and people who continues to endure the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Iraq.
The aim of the project is to provide free and high-quality medical care to the most vulnerable groups within the districts of Sulaymaniyah and Nineveh, and to further support the activities that EMERGENCY has been pursuing in Iraq for several years.
Hitherto focusing on the treatment, rehabilitation, and social reintegration of landmine victims, the breadth of EMERGENCY’s work in Iraq has expanded in recent years to meet the complex and varied healthcare needs of growing numbers of internally displaced people and refugees who have fled the fighting, including in Mosul and in neighbouring Syria.
EMERGENCY began working in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1995, providing surgical care to a population affected by civil war in the region. To fully assist the victims of the war in Iraq, in 1998 the organisation opened its Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration Centre in Sulaymaniyah. Having attained full operational autonomy, the centre is now managed and run by local staff specialised in physiotherapy, rehabilitation, and prosthetics. Within the Rehabilitation Centre, EMERGENCY also organises social reintegration and professional training programmes, with the aim of helping victims of war and anti-personnel mines reintegrate into their communities and regain independence.
To cope with the consequences of the Mosul conflict and the serious injuries that unexploded ordnances continue to cause, EMERGENCY began collaborating with the Mosul Rehabilitation Centre in 2017. The centre in Mosul provides physiotherapy services to patients in need of ortho – prosthesis/prosthetic devices.
EMERGENCY doctors and nurses are also present in three health centres in the Ashti and Tazade Camps within the Sulaymaniyah governorate. Set up by the Kurdish authorities and international organisations, these camps host internally displaced people affected by the conflict.
The project has two main objectives. Firstly, it ensures essential medical care to internally displaced people within dedicated camps by providing a comprehensive range of healthcare services. These services include care for individuals with chronic conditions, wide-ranging educational activities, a first aid service with an ambulance available 24/7, responding to the most urgent incidents, as well as diagnostic laboratory services. Secondly, the project aims to improve access to rehabilitation services for Mosul’s amputee patients, providing them with custom-made prostheses and physiotherapy sessions.
The planned activities will involve approximately 60,000 beneficiaries, many of whom reside in Ashti, Tazade, and Sulaymaniyah.
EMERGENCY is an independent and neutral Italian organisation, founded in 1994 in order to offer free and high-quality medical and surgical treatment to the victims of war, landmines, and poverty. EMERGENCY promotes a culture of peace, solidarity, and respect for human rights. Since 1994, EMERGENCY has worked in 18 countries and treated over 9 million people.