Emergency aid

Emergency aid – contrary to media presentations – is not a question of speed. Even in acute crises, international NGOs have to promote and expand existing structures, instead of simply replacing domestic actors. Our network of partners delivers just this kind of sustainable emergency aid. Its goal is to restore independence and autonomy as quickly as possible to people in emergencies.

Gaza

Destruction and attrition

The Israeli military offensive in summer 2014 has transformed large areas of Gaza into a scene of devastation. medico partners have provided emergency medical aid and documented possible war crimes. Read more

Drought in Eastern Africa

We need to blame all governments

After the drought of 2011 we failed as a global collective community: We didn’t rebuild the lives of those people we saved. So why did we save them? For the next drought to kill them? Read more

Our Position

Solidarity begins beyond aid

It is good and just to give homeless people shelter for the night, wrote Bertolt Brecht. He added, however, that this will not change the world, or shorten the age of exploitation. Read more

Philippines

What emergency aid, what reconstruction?

Where the aid doesn't reach: the SOS teams primarily helped the wounded in remote regions. The health network's logistics teams distributed emergency packages to 50,000 people. (Foto: Bernd Eichner)

After the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan medico's Philippine partners provided sustainable emergency aid thanks to their local structures. The health activists concentrated on people and regions which were being ignored by state politics. Read more

Gaza

Destruction and attrition

Our Position

Solidarity begins beyond aid

It is good and just to give homeless people shelter for the night, wrote Bertolt Brecht. He added, however, that this will not change the world, or shorten the age of exploitation. Read more

Drought in Eastern Africa

We need to blame all governments

After the drought of 2011 we failed as a global collective community: We didn’t rebuild the lives of those people we saved. So why did we save them? For the next drought to kill them? Read more

Philippines

What emergency aid, what reconstruction?

News

26.02.2015 “We must not fail in Gaza.”

"As UN agencies and international NGOs operating in Gaza, we are alarmed by the limited progress in rebuilding the lives of those affected and tackling the root causes of the conflict."

11.10.2011 Rights instead of Compassion for East Africa

We have to understand the roots of tragedies to avoid repetition. The crisis in East Africa is not at all „unbelievable“, as some commentators continue to suggest, the approaching disaster has been foreseeable for years and decades. People are dying not only because of an unfortunate drought but also of systemic, wide-ranging problems such as climate change, the consequences of neo-liberal ideologies, military interventions and unstable grain markets - and because the world of states is unwilling to outlaw and pursue the warlords that have been destroying Somalia for 20 years.