German Organization Sends Medical Aid to Iraq
March 16, 2003
For the last several months, aid agencies around the world have been gearing up for a war on Iraq and a possible humanitarian crisis in its wake.
The German medical aid organization Action Medeor has been sending first aid packages to developing countries for the last forty years. Its primary aim is to provide a continuous supply of essential drugs to local health care projects, as well as emergency aid in case of disasters.
The NGO, set up in 1964, today supports over 9,000 local health projects in 126 countries, advising regional organizations on setting up and developing primary health care services. In addition, Action Medeor provides pharmaceutical expertise and support in implementing local health care projects in cooperation with local organizations.
An average of some 40,000 health kits containing basic medicines and medical equipment leave the Action Medeor warehouse in Tönisvorst each year. All the pharmaceutical products shipped by Action Medeor are manufactured by various approved pharmaceutical companies and delivered to health care centers around the world on behalf of other relief organizations, initiatives or private persons.
About 150 tons of medicines and medical equipment are stocked in the cavernous premises of the Action Medeor warehouse. The quick and effective delivery of their life-saving medical aid is made possible by their many partner organizations working in the crisis regions.
Plea for help
One such partner is Dr. Nirz Miran, former health minister of the Iraq's northern Kurd-dominated region and a member of the Voluntary Relief Doctors, who recently visited Action Medeor in Tönisvorst to ask for help. The Kurdish doctor outlined the situation escalating in Northern Iraq and said that some 3.5 million northern Iraqis currently fear for their lives.
Many are concerned about an attack by Saddam Hussein should war break out, and are already fleeing towards the Turkish border. Action Medeor has put together a health kit with basic medicines and medical equipment needed for 10,000 people over a period of three months. Tents and blankets are also included in the shipment and a number of gas masks have been ordered upon request.
International aid organizations say that military action could leave up to 60 percent of Iraqis on the brink of starvation, and would hit power supplies and transport routes, disrupting the flow of food aid to millions of people.
The situation is particularly severe due to the fraught conditions that Iraqis have been living under for the last ten years. With around 60 percent of the population relying on the monthly food rations bought under the U.N.'s Oil-For-Food program, a collapse of the distribution system would have disastrous consequences.
What next?
With over three quarters of Action Medeor's funding coming from private donations and the rest from grants, the organization tirelessly lobbies for more relief aid money from the German government and more help from the pharmaceutical companies. These days, Action Medeor's basic health kits contain antibiotics, painkillers, and even baby food, dressings, basic surgical instruments and other necessities. Machines called minilabs are used to tackle the problem of fake medicines in Third World countries -- small drug testers which can test the quality of 15 to 20 different essential drugs.
Action Medeor is currently preparing further health kits and medicines for partners in Amman, Jordan and southern Turkey. Medical support for the Kurdistan Health Foundation is also being planned. Action Medeor is collecting donations under the term “Iraq.”