ACTIVITY REPORT 1994 – 2022: Cogs In The Wheel Of Peace

COGS IN THE WHEEL OF PEACE

Introduction by Rossella Miccio, President of EMERGENCY, in the 2022 Report

Frontiers – physical and moral. Like the ones invaded, criminally, by Russia on 24 February 2022, or the ones constructed to keep migrants away. In 2022 we watched as Europe slid further into violence and division. In the midst of this regression, EMERGENCY has sought to act as a cog in the wheel of peace.

Our response to the brutal war in Ukraine has been multifaceted. We were involved in sending direct supplies to support hospitals in Ukraine itself, whilst in neighbouring Moldova, we provided medical aid and psychological support to refugees. We know that the way to fight for peace is by rebuilding, not by destroying.

For more than 20 years we have built healthcare opportunities and rights in Afghanistan, a country forgotten in the headlines and largely abandoned by the international community.

At EMERGENCY we have a rigorous definition of help. It’s the sort of rigour that comes with building rights, with not just talking but planning and doing. In 2022, we brought representatives of more than 10 African governments together in Entebbe, to strengthen and expand the African Network of Medical Excellence (ANME). We want to bring more and more countries into a healthcare model which was founded on the right to care and to live a life with dignity. It is the violation of these very rights that is forcing people to flee and risk their lives, every day. The fundamental right to life is being systematically violated in the Mediterranean Sea. The blame lies with political negligence, moral relativism and infrequent rescue missions thanks to European policies that condemn migrants to a living hell of constant flight or Libyan prisons.

Which is why we ended 2022 with a new beginning: our search and rescue ship Life Support. With it we plan to break through the barriers that have been put up to obstruct those who are different, the other, the enemy – these terms which have become synonymous.

We have done all this thanks to our staff of more than 3,000 people around the world, and our thousands of volunteers, fighters for the commitment to shared health and wellbeing that EMERGENCY wants to see everywhere.

Thank you for this daily revolution of justice. Thank you above all to those of you who have chosen once again to help us this year, because you believe in the only possible choice: the choice to support those in need.