“It looked like a harmless object that my 10-year-old son, Khudai Noor, was playing with. In a single moment, when it exploded, I saw a bloodbath. Marjia, the area we live in, is predominantly agricultural and often affected by violent fights and battles. Every day, I feared for my son. I immediately took him to…

There is something, besides their pink pyjamas, linking Walas Bibi and Zubaida: they are both victims of war. Walas Bibi, 10, was near her house in the Nad Ali district when her right arm and abdomen were wounded during a firefight. Living in Helmand means living through the reality of war on a daily basis. Her…

“I cannot read or write and I do not know anything about war. I’m just a girl. We are nomads. We move with tents and sheep from one side of the country to another and we live on that. We were setting up the tent in a place that we actually already knew. We had…

There are really difficult days. Like last Tuesday when an attack during a religious ceremony in Kabul killed more than 50 people and injured dozens. 40 wounded patients were taken to our Surgical centre in Kabul, with 7 dead on arrival. “Yet another mass casualty in Kabul, we’ve had 27 in 11 months”. Those people…

Since 1998, EMERGENCY’s Centre for Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, has provided prostheses, physiotherapy and vocational training to people affected by war and landmines. Aram, 36 years old and father to three children, recently graduated from the vocational training programme offered by the Centre. 1998 is also the year when Aram stepped on…

“A high-quality service that allows even the most complex cases to be treated according to international standards”. This is how Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), described our work at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Khartoum during his opening speech at the World Health Summit in Berlin. He…

In the districts around Lashkar-Gah, six First Aid Posts operate to give immediate assistance to wounded people. In these facilities, local nurses offer first aid to patients, who are then transferred to our hospital via our ambulance network if required. In May 2016, violent clashes in the area forced us to close the First Aid…

I knew about labourers in Southern Italy, I’d read their stories. The uprising in Nardó, the makeshift camp for migrants in San Ferdinando, the acts of violence. Maybe I knew what to expect. But the reality of the situation is even harder. When I arrived in Calabria, in Lamezia first, then in Rosarno and finally…

Etienne is 46 years old. Two years ago, he fled from the Ivory Coast to get on a boat and face one of the most dangerous migratory routes in the world. EMERGENCY’s staff met him on one of our ‘Politruck’ clinics in Milan. “I already know you!”, he tells us when he arrives. Today, Etienne…

Ablà is a Liberian boy. His life had always been marked by war. Whenever it seemed to be over, it would start all over again. He dreamed of studying in his country, but war doesn’t allow you to study. When Ablà’s mother became ill, his father spent all his savings to get her treatment, but…