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Dear [[FirstName]],
Worldwide, some 450 million people suffer from mental or behavioral disorders, yet only a small percentage have access to even the most basic treatment. But the tide is beginning to turn. In the past two years, the humanitarian relief community has increasingly recognized that providing mental health services is a vital component of assisting people in complex emergencies.
October 10 marks World Mental Health Day, which comes in the wake of the official launch of a new set of guidelines issued by the Interagency Standing Committee. This is the first attempt at a global consensus on recommended practices in providing psychosocial support and mental health care to survivors of conflict and disaster. Another sign of mental health’s ascendancy in the global health dialogue: in September, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet launched a five-part series on mental health in the developing world, announcing that it was initiating a broad new social movement to strengthen mental health, which it called “a neglected aspect of human well-being”.
IMC has been integrating mental health into our primary health care programs since the early 1990s. Since then, we have taught primary health care staff in countries such as Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Sierra Leone to identify people struggling with mental disorders, and provide them with basic treatment. We have worked to reduce the stigma attached to sufferers by educating communities to better understand these problems. And we have initiated a trailblazing early child development program in the refugee camps of northern Uganda that improves mother-child interaction through enhancing mothers' natural abilities to play and communicate with their children.
With your support, IMC can continue to design innovative programs that help equip populations emerging from crisis to develop the personal strength and stability they need to rebuild their lives and communities.
Sincerely,
Lynne Jones
Technical Director of Mental Health
A New Surgery Ward in Chad Saves Mothers’ and Children's Lives
Amina had been in labor for three days by the time she was brought to Guereda Hospital from her village 50 kilometers away. Both she and her baby were at risk of dying. Thanks to an expert medical team and a well-equipped new surgery ward, today Amina and her six-month-old baby are alive and well. Read more
After Fifteen Years of Suffering, an Epileptic’s Life is Transformed
Thirty-five-year old Rosmawati spent more than half of her life in hiding, too ashamed to leave the house for fear of having a seizure. Only after being diagnosed with epilepsy at an IMC mobile clinic did she receive the treatment she should have been getting for years. Read more
 Rebuilding Sri Lanka: A Journey in Pictures
International Medical Corps has been working for three years to help those who lost their homes, their livelihoods, and their loved ones during the tsunami that struck the coast of Sri Lanka in December 2004. As IMC wraps up its programs there, we look back on the various ways that we helped Sri Lankans navigate their turbulent lives post-tsunami, and provided them with the tools to get back on their feet again. View slideshow
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IMC NEWS
International Medical Corps President & CEO Nancy Aossey was given the distinct honor of speaking about IMC’s pledge to raise $3 million toward building a women’s health network in Sub-Saharan Africa at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). CGI is a gathering of 1,000 world leaders who come together each year to examine today's most pressing global challenges and to make concrete commitments to action. Participants include current and former heads of state, top business executives, preeminent scholars, and representatives of key non-governmental organizations. International Medical Corps has been a CGI member since 2005, when it was founded by President Bill Clinton.
Click here to watch Nancy Aossey’s remarks.
Darfur, Sudan is being called the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Tens of thousands of people have died. Two million more have been forced to flee their homes and livelihoods. International Medical Corps was one of the first relief organizations to arrive on the scene in Darfur, and remains there to this day. Last month, a documentary on IMC’s work in Darfur premiered on the home page of YouTube, where it has received almost 300,000 page views. It also premiered on HDNet.
Click here to watch the documentary “Emergency in Darfur."
In late September, Dr. Jill John-Kall, IMC's Medical Director in Darfur, was interviewed about the challenges of working in a conflict zone on NPR’s “News and Notes”.
Click here to listen to the audio for “News and Notes.”
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