World Humanitarian Day.311 million people need our support.
19.08.2024
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4 minutes
Celebrated on August 19, this holiday honors humanitarian aid workers and is marked by the slogan #ActForHumanity. In recent years, people have increasingly paid with their lives for their desire to help. Just this year, 173 humanitarian workers have been killed, the most in the Gaza Strip. Their assistance is desperately needed: according to UN data, as many as 311 million people worldwide require support.
The safety of humanitarian workers and civilians is crucial in any armed conflict—they are not and never have been a party to any war. However, this safety diminishes each year. Despite international regulations, attacks on civilians and those providing aid continue in many parts of the world, including Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.
The areas to which civilians are evacuated in the Gaza Strip are safe in name only. Bombs fall there, and people die. When evacuations are announced, attacks often begin before refugees can even set out – reports Małgorzata Olasińska-Chart, Director of Humanitarian Aid at the Polish Medical Mission. – Based on the data available to us, we estimate that civilians make up about 85% of the casualties in the Gaza Strip. It is also in the Gaza Strip that 129 of the 173 humanitarian workers who lost their lives this year have been killed.
Currently, 83% of the Gaza Strip is no longer realistically accessible to civilians. The majority of the over 2-million population of the Gaza Strip is trying to take shelter on a small piece of land that is supposed to be “safe” for them. The number of Palestinian casualties is over 39,000, including more than 500 healthcare workers. The Polish Medical Mission is primarily supporting the healthcare system in Gaza, which is in urgent need of assistance and lacks literally everything. In Ukraine, where PMM operates mobile clinics to assist those who, for various reasons, could not or did not want to leave dangerous front-line areas, the situation is also very dangerous.
Medical staff are constantly facing the possibility of immediate evacuation. We, on the other hand, must ensure that we have done everything in our power to provide them with the conditions for work and a safe return home – assures Małgorzata Olasińska-Chart, speaking about the mobile clinic project in Ukraine. – Aid in eastern Ukraine is one of our priorities. Our patients there are mainly the elderly, who are often the most vulnerable to the ongoing conflict.
According to UN data, 311.3 million people currently need humanitarian assistance. Often, they are most affected by the lack of food. In the youngest children, prolonged malnutrition leads to many illnesses and developmental problems. The Polish Medical Mission fights hunger and malnutrition, among other places, in Ethiopia, Senegal, and areas affected by armed conflicts where efficient food supply chains have been disrupted.
For 25 years, the Polish Medical Mission has been striving to provide safety to the most vulnerable and in need. Since its inception, it has provided essential medical assistance to over a million people worldwide.
