Assetou Gaudissard – Radio Free TV

Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria: Our Emergency Response Already Underway

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Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria: Our Emergency Response Already Underway

The post Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria: Our Emergency Response Already Underway appeared first on Doctors of the World.

Call for the end of Title 42, a cruel U.S. policy against Asylum Seekers

Doctors of the World USA condemns the recent extension of Title 42 expulsions at the U.S. southern border, despite the CDC’s stated position that the order should be lifted.
Title 42 has been used since 2020 by U.S. authorities to block and expel asylum seekers and other migrants from the United States under the guise of a pandemic mitigation measure. This decision endangers the lives of men, women and children who have a legal right to seek asylum and who are no more likely than anyone else in the country to carry disease.
Read the letter written by a group of public health experts, including Ron Waldman, Board President of Doctors of the World USA, urging the Biden administration to cease expansions to Title 42 and its subversion of public health to advance immigration control objectives.
© Christian Chavez / Associated Press

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Luis’ Story

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Border Health Program Press Release

EL PASO, TX, October 2022 – In an effort to provide more than just basic emergency care to migrants and asylum seekers at the border, the Border Health Program (BHP) launched this month. BHP is a new program led by Doctors of the World USA (DotW) in partnership with Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso), and local organizations operating border shelters. BHP offers migrants at the border transitional medical care, uses data to advocate for public policies that will better address their health needs and reduce burdens on local health systems, and provides medical students with learning opportunities that will serve as the foundation for research and curriculum development focused on migrant health.
In recent years, a growing number of migrants and asylum-seekers have been crossing the US-Mexico border. According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 234,088 migrants crossed in April 2022, topping March’s 22-year high of 221,444. Lamentably, most shelters and CBP facilities lack sufficient accommodations, staffing or procedures to thoroughly assess migrants’ health needs, resulting in dangerous medical oversights.
Based on DotW’s exploratory missions to the US-Mexico border, and supported by findings from external reports, there is a dire need for both medical care AND rational public policy regarding access to healthcare for populations in transit at the border, particularly as numbers of asylum seekers entering the US continues to increase. Issues that DotW and other BHP staff encounter include migrants with chronic conditions (i.e. diabetes, asthma, seizures, and high blood pressure) having their prescription medications confiscated by CBP; many migrants who survive dangerous desert crossings suffering from dehydration and other heat related health risks; border wall injuries; and women suffering sexual violence en route to the US, along with 5% of men and 50% of gay and transgender individuals. Additionally, the number of women migrating to the US and crossing the southern border is growing: women represented an estimated 35% of migrants in 2019, up from 14% in 2012.
Each partner’s role within BHP is distinct and leverages their respective areas of expertise. As a global expert on migrant and refugee health, DotW serves as the institutional link between border shelters and TTUHSC El Paso, focusing on building shelters’ capacity, providing administrative and financial support, and conducting evidence- based advocacy to promote sound public health policy and best practices. TTUHSC El Paso provides the workforce with faculty, residents, and medical students staffing the clinic. And our local partners provide the primary clinical sites and, when necessary, overflow sites.

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New U.S.-Mexico Border Health Program

When our first patient, Luis, arrived in El Paso, TX he had to make a choice: receive medical treatment for severe pneumonia but remain in U.S. custody, or be released to travel freely within the U.S. but risk severe health complications, including death, from his pneumonia. What choice did he really have?

Unfortunately for Luis, this was not the first impossible choice he’s had to make. When his beloved wife was diagnosed with uterine cancer, he had to find a job that could pay enough to cover the cost of a life-saving hysterectomy. In his country, Venezuela, such a job did not exist. So, he had to make a choice: remain by his sick wife’s side or leave her (and his country) to find a job opportunity in the U.S.

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World Population Day 2022

These mega trends have far-reaching consequences. They affect economic development, employment, income distribution, poverty and social protections. Women represent half of the world’s population and will play a vital part in building a better, more sustainable and equitable world. Doctors of the World will continue its fight for women’s rights, by advocating for equity and continuing its many programs that focus on supporting women, so that they can continue the important work that they do for our world. For those that would like to know more about World Population Day and the 2022 status of women’s rights, click on the link to see the United Nations publication: https://www.unfpa.org/data/world-population-dashboard

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World Refugee Day 2022

This holds true for all asylum seekers and refugees. However, many refugees from other countries as well as third state nationals or stateless people from Ukraine often do not enjoy the same access to fundamental rights and services. Now, it is time for governments to show that they do not distinguish between human beings in need according to their origin, gender, religion, or the color of their skin. No hierarchy must be put between people seeking protection. The right not to be discriminated against is enshrined in several international human rights treaties and the 1951 Refugee Convention specifically prohibits discrimination between refugees based on race, religion, or country of origin.

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Amicus Brief on Title 42

Doctors of the World has joined with epidemiologists, public health experts, and medical professionals in filing an amicus brief on the Title 42 order that has been used to block and expel asylum seekers and other migrants from the United States under the guise of a pandemic mitigation measure. This brief has been filed in litigation pending before a federal district court in Louisiana brought by Arizona and a coalition of other states to prevent the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from terminating (on May 23, 2022) its prior Title 42 orders.

The public health experts’ brief addresses the lack of public health justification for the original Title 42 orders, that Title 42 expulsions have in fact undermined public health, and that existing public health measures can be implemented to safely process asylum seekers at the border. The brief was submitted with Ron Waldman, President of Doctors of the World USA.

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Interview with Bashar Kailani: Field Coordinator in Ukraine

Before you came to Ukraine, you worked with Doctors of the World/Médecins du Monde in Syria. Did that experience help you for your work in Ukraine?
The Syrian experience did teach me a lot of things about how to handle the situation. I didn’t have the same feeling of panic that a person might feel who has not been exposed to that kind of situation before. You become much calmer with experience. This helped me a lot during the evacuation. It wasn’t a surprise, of course, but the steps in my head were very clear.
Could you talk a bit about the challenges when evacuating the team?
The most intense part of that trip was the part from Dnipro to Vinnytsia. All the gas stations that had fuel had huge queues, and you could only get 20 liters at a time. But I had that in mind from the Syrian experience. So I had my tank full, I was ready to go. We had enough water, we had enough food supplies for the road and the most essential files that we needed to keep with us, employment files for example. We had to take many detours, because of shelling and information about airstrikes. At some point, we were really low on fuel. The most intense moments were when you saw those jet fighters on top of your head, some of them very close to you. You could see the black smoke from the locations that had been attacked
You initially evacuated the team to Romania. Was it difficult to cross the border?
When we were trying to evacuate from Chernivtsi to Romania, there was a line of vehicles that was almost 12 km long. We had an SUV, so we were also able to go off-road a little bit and take a detour. When we came to another crossing, we saw hundreds of pedestrians, mostly Indian and African students. They were not allowed to cross the border. It was freezing cold. The small supermarkets and restaurants in the areas had mostly run out of food. But non-Ukrainians were also denied using the washrooms, even a cup of tea. Some of them had to light fires in the nearby woods to stay warm. Our team, the medical coordinator, the translator, the general coordinator, and I waited about 16 to 18 hours to cross. Sleeping in the car during the night, I was awoken by border guards apparently firing into the air to keep people from crossing by force.
Now you’re back in Ukraine, among other things, working on supplying hospitals and health centers with badly needed medical supplies. Can you explain why this is such a difficult and sometimes long process?
There are some hospitals that cannot get their medical supplies, although they bought them. They just sit in the warehouses somewhere because the war has interrupted the supply chain. Some contractors’ trucks have been destroyed, some use fuel that is rare to find, some routes have become longer, so now there is a higher price rate. Some truck drivers have also left the country or are unwilling to go to certain locations. Then there are the highways. Many of them are just one or two-way roads and there are a lot of traffic jams – also because of the massive IDP movement in some areas. A trip that would normally take about eight hours can take you twice as long.
How does MdM manage to support health facilities with medical supplies, nevertheless?
To overcome these challenges, you need to build a big network with lots of private contractors or suppliers and lots of community-based organizations. For example, we have supported a hospital in Donetsk oblast to get lifesaving items to carry out dialysis from Kiev. The hospital purchased the items before the war was declared, but because of the war the supplier could not deliver. So we identified a transport company that was willing to pick up the items from the warehouse in Kiev and bring them to Donetsk.

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