• Gino Strada died.

    The founder of Emergency was 73 years old

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August 13, 2021 "One every minute". More than 11 million people in 19 countries have been treated free of charge by Emergency since 1994, the year of its foundation. 



Twenty-seven years ago Gino Strada, together with his wife Teresa Sarti, who died in 2009, founded an "independent and neutral" organization to offer free and high quality medical-surgical treatment to the victims of wars, landmines and poverty. So offer health care to those who need it most. Emergency today is a non-profit NGO, an international organization that promotes the culture of peace, solidarity and human rights. 



The 19 countries where Amnesty has worked in over a quarter of a century are

Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Cambodia, Eritrea, Iraq, Italy, Libya, Nepal, Nicaragua, Palestine, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda and Yemen

.



In Italy since 2006 he has created clinics for migrants and disadvantaged people in

Marghera, Polistena, Castel Volturno, Naples, Sassari

. Since 2014 also mobile clinics in

Milan and Ragusa

. And again in 2016, socio-health guidance counters have sprung up in

Brescia

. Since 2017, the association to the population affected by the earthquake has provided psychological and nursing assistance in the province of

Teramo, Macerata and L'Aquila

and from 2019 support to search and rescue operations for migrants with the Proactiva Open Arms association in the Mediterranean Sea. 



The list of initiatives carried out abroad is long: in Iraq since 1998 it has set up a rehabilitation and social reintegration center and vocational training courses, while since 1999 there have been 390 cooperatives for the disabled. A surgical and pediatric center and 44 first aid posts and health centers have been in operation in Afghanistan since 1999 in 31 districts of the country, 5 prisons and 2 orphanages in Kabul. Since 2001 a surgical center for war victims has been built in Kabul, since 2003 a maternity center in Anabah and since 2004 a surgical center for war victims in Lashkar Gah.



In Yemen a surgical center for war victims has been active since 2018 in Hajjaj and in Eritrea, in Asmara, a cardiology clinic at the Orotta Hospital since 2019, while in Uganda since 2017 there is a pediatric surgery center. There has been a surgical center in Sierra Leone since 2001, and 4 pediatric centers in Sudan.



With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Emergency has launched new activities to respond to the emergency: health projects, such as the management of an intensive care unit in the Bergamo Fiera hospital, social projects to support people in difficulty and prevention projects to limit the risk of contagion by exploiting the experience gained during the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone in 2014-2015.



In November 2020, at the request of the Government and Civil Protection, Emergercy worked in Calabria with the aim of increasing the beds available for Covid-19 patients at the San Giovanni di Dio hospital in

Crotone

, at a time when 30 beds in the existing Covid ward were not enough. A team of doctors, nurses and logistics workers worked on the construction of a second ward for Covid-19 patients, equipped with 25 fully equipped beds and 8 beds in an external tented structure to be used in case of need. The Covid-2 department began its activities in December 2020 and ended in mid-February 2021 with the decline in infections and hospitalizations.