Skip to main content
article atm-icon bar bell bio cancel-o cancel ch-icon crisis-color crisis cs-icon doc-icon down-angle down-arrow-o down-triangle download email-small email external facebook googleplus hamburger image-icon info-o info instagram left-angle-o left-angle left-arrow-2 left-arrow linkedin loader menu minus-o pdf-icon pencil photography pinterest play-icon plus-o press right-angle-o right-angle right-arrow-o right-arrow right-diag-arrow rss search tags time twitter up-arrow-o videos

Suggested Content

Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Tanzania, Djibouti

Giving Health to Refugees Around the World

  • June 20, 2017
  • Muhammad Hamad, Reuters
  • Emergency Programs, Newsroom

World Refugee Day #WithRefugees

Around the world, more than 65 million people have fled their homes because of disaster and conflict, putting their lives at risk. These families seek refuge—a safer place to live for weeks or months, until they can return home or make a new one.

To support refugees and displaced people, Americares provides health programs, medicine and medical supplies—to health centers, volunteer medical teams, governments and organizations set up to serve unique groups. 

Medical teams bringing health care to people in crisis

For families fleeing Syria, increased access to mental health services: Americares trained health workers in Turkey and Jordan—including Syrian doctors—to address the mental health needs of Syrian refugees. 

 

“The trauma refugees face creates real and often debilitating anxiety, depression and loss of coping abilities. We continue to prioritize the inclusion of mental health services to ensure frontline health workers and others are provided the training they need to be first responders for mental health issues.”  

Americares President and CEO Michael J. Nyenhuis, addressing the Concordia Summit roundtable in Athens, Greece

 Americares President & CEO calls for supporting refugees wherever they are in need. Read blog post. 

Read blog post

A blog posting on caring for refugees from Michael J. Nyenhuis. 

Facing drought, famine, violence and cholera

For people displaced by drought in Somalia, critical medicine and nutrition: To save lives, Americares is providing medicine and treatments for cholera, a deadly diarrheal disease that has already sickened more than 45,000 Somalians who have left their homes because of drought and intense fighting. We are also providing relief supplies, including water purification supplies and tarps for shelter for families in displaced persons camps in Somalia.  More on Somalia. 

For Syrian refugees in Jordan, help for chronic disease: More 650,000 Syrians are now living in Jordan. To expand and strengthen health services for refugees and Jordanians, Americares is collaborating with local health organizations to give patients the tools to reduce their risk of costly chronic diseases, including diabetes and hypertension as well as mental illness. 

Patients awaiting care in refugee camp

A history of helping refugee families

For families fleeing civil war in Burundi, safety from disease: When thousands fled to neighboring Tanzania, highly infectious cholera began to spread in refugee camps and host communities. Americares trained Tanzanian health workers and provided critical supplies to treat the disease and stop the spread. The training can be replicated and targeted to improve maternal and child health services in host-community hospitals. 

For refugees and migrants in Djibouti, medicine and lifesaving fluids: Americares June 2017 shipment will help improve the health of families fleeing violence in Yemen, as well as those who left their homes in Ethiopia and Somalia to seek a better life, but are stranded in Djibouti. 

“Djibouti feels like a place where people have been forgotten. Slow-onset and persistent disasters don’t get much attention.” 

                   —-Americares Senior Vice President Dr. E. Anne Peterson

Also helping refugee families on the U.S. border, providing shelter for refugee families