This year’s World Humanitarian Day feels ever more urgent , with protracted conflict and a fragile climate impacting millions of people globally. The theme is ‘Strengthening Global Solidarity and Empowering Local Communities’. While our work reaches many countries, today we focus on our Ukrainian and Palestinian staff – without whom our operations would not be possible . Their expertise ensures emergency medical care can reach those who need it most, acknowledging that very often national staff experience the highest risk conducting their jobs – whether that’s risk to themselves or their families.
Ukraine
Ukraine has been one of our largest emergency responses to date, with more than 200 NHS and international medics providing life-saving medical aid since 2022. Our country programme employs 50 humanitarians, mostly Ukrainian staff, to maintain our life-saving medical work. We first arrived in Ukraine on 4 March 2022 and have been providing care on the ground ever since across three main areas:
- Mobile health units (MMUs) which are getting primary health care and mental health support to people who have been uprooted by the conflict and or the front line has moved to them. Clinics are like a “GP on wheels” and are staffed by a GP, nurse, social worker, and counsellor.
- Medical training for first responders and civilians so that they are better prepared to cope with medical emergencies.
- Surgical support to meet the huge demand for specialist surgery for injured people – particularly war wounds and limb and facial reconstruction – working alongside Ukrainian medics in hospitals across eastern Ukraine.
Meet the team:
Natalia | MMU Nurse
When the war started, she and her 15-year-old daughter left to live with relatives in Bulgaria. They decided to return shortly after her daughter said ‘mama let’s go home, let’s not sit here’, realising the need for care back in Ukraine and her skills as a nurse put to use.
She explains the work is dangerous, often travelling into designated ‘red zone’ regions, but the most important thing is to provide support for people: “You see smiles, and it means a lot when patients say we don’t feel forgotten. They feel as though somebody cares for them.”
Anton | MMU Psychologist
Anton is from Kyiv but now works in the MMU that serves Zaporizhzhia Oblast. As a psychologist, it’s normal to be treating mental illness such as depression or bipolar, in every population. But, during the war, he has witnessed an increase in different disorders like PTSD or acute reactions to stress, or adaptation disorders.
He explains the biggest challenge is the lack of time with each patient: “You have to think, what can you do that will be beneficial? There is one lady I remember, she didn’t live near the frontline but still in a war zone. She had a stroke and was paralysed down one side. If we were in a different circumstance, we would have designed a completely different programme for her. But in 50 minutes, it’s not possible.”
He strives to combat the stigma around mental illness in these communities and promotes the benefits of looking after your mental health – despite the circumstances.
Olha | MMU Social Worker
Born and raised in Zaporizhzhia, 45-year-old Olha volunteered to help transport people from the occupied territories to safer areas at the start of the current conflict. She has worked within mobile units since 2023 and describes the feeling as “finding her place” helping people and realising they are reliant on her support.
Asked what her message would be to people outside Ukraine, Olha states: “I would like the community outside to know we are ordinary people here, we are not ready for all this stress and for all this war. It’s the greatest stress and burden for all of us, especially as we are so close to the occupied territories. We keep standing, we are resilient, and we turn out to be quite strong. But without your help, we will not be able to survive for a long period at a time.”
Gaza
Since January 2024, UK-Med has provided over 600,000 consultations to people in Gaza so far. We have constructed two field hospitals and employ more than 500 local staff who are working alongside international medics (many of them from the NHS) to provide life and limb-saving medical aid.
Dr Somaya | Cardiologist
Qualifying in 2018, Dr Somaya now works at the UK-Med field hospital in Al-Mawasi helping with health emergencies, and at the primary health clinic where she evaluates patients for hypertension, diabetes and other chronic illnesses. She wakes up at 05:00AM to travel to here, the road is very crowded with people displaced through evacuation orders; this journey takes three to four hours each way. Coupled with the limited food supply, she describes herself as “always fatigued” – but still she turns up to work.
Before the current conflict, she worked at Al Shifa Hospital for six years and knows patients in the community well. She explains that due to limited supplies, when someone has a heart attack, the medication available is no longer listed in Europe. For this reason, it only sadly works for approximately 60% of patients. She says “We lost many patients during the war. We know many patients and have good relationships as they are admitted many times to hospital – now, we lost these patients.”
Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE)
Our RCCE team of national staff conduct health promotion activities across all sites, reaching almost 2,000 individuals at the Al-Mawasi field hospital, nearly 1,000 in Deir Al-Balah and 1,000 at Nasser Emergency Department in the first weeks of August alone.
They are the beating heart of the hospital with so much energy and positivity, and help bridge the divide between the facility and the population it serves. Community acceptance and understanding are vital components for effective operation.
The team organise blood donation drives and vaccine information, alongside breastfeeding advice and mental health support. They continue to monitor and respond to rumours, concerns, and complaints from patients, which primarily relate to dermatological conditions (notably scabies), acute watery diarrhoea, and malnutrition.
But, among this, each week the RCCE team put on a movie night in the paediatric ward to create some semblance of normality for the in-patients, and some of the local children of the staff members on duty.
