Medical Emergency Relief International
This article needs to be updated.(December 2016) |
Founded | 1993 Disease prevention, and Epidemiology |
---|---|
Location | |
Area served | Global |
Method | Research, Emergency Health Guidelines, Infrastructure |
Employees | Around 4,000[1] |
Website | www |
Formerly called | Merlin Board Limited[1] |
Medical Emergency Relief International (Merlin) is a former British
History
Merlin was founded in 1993 by Dr Christopher Besse, Nicholas Mellor and Mark Dalton
In July 2013, Merlin merged with Save the Children.[5][6]
Notable activities by region
Africa
Merlin has worked in Kenya since 1998, running voluntary HIV testing and counseling clinics in Turkana for nomadic pastoralists, and a similar project which supports patients receiving anti-retroviral treatment in the Great Rift Valley. Since many people with TB have also contracted HIV and vice versa, Merlin is working with the Kenyan government to encourage HIV-positive people and TB patients to be tested for both infections. In Nyanza in the western highlands of Kenya, Merlin is training locals to provide home-based care for HIV-positive people. After the re-appearance of malaria in Nyanza, Merlin is training community health workers to identify, to reduce and prevent malaria by raising awareness, by distributing bed nets and by spraying people's homes with insecticide.
Liberia: Due to lack of qualified health workers, a dilapidated health infrastructure and insufficient government funds, Liberia's health care system is only beginning to make the transition from an emergency to development phase. Since 1997, Merlin has been working with the Ministry of Health to renovate health facilities, supply medicines and equipment, and train and supervise health workers.
Sudan: In 2004, when Merlin's teams began setting up health services, most people made homeless by militia attacks had no opportunity to get medical care. Merlin now operates a network of clinics serving eight settlements which have been inundated by people fleeing the conflict. On average 134,000 are treated every six months.
Middle East
Merlin began working in Afghanistan in 1994, providing essential health services for vulnerable people in some of the most remote and hard to reach areas of the country. Reproductive health care in Afghanistan is particularly inadequate, resulting in some of the highest maternal and child mortality rates in the world. For a time only 14% of deliveries were attended by a trained midwife, and in isolated rural areas, women faced a one in three lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth. Merlin opened a midwife training centre in Taloqan in the north-eastern province of Takhar in April 2006. Since then many students have graduated and are now providing essential maternal health care for more than 84,000 women.
The 2003 Bam earthquake: On 26 December 2003, an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the moment magnitude scale struck the ancient city of Bam in Iran, killing more than 26,000 people and leaving 75,000 homeless. Merlin responded within 72 hours of the disaster, sending in a team to carry out health assessments and to distribute emergency medical supplies, hygiene packs, and essential water and sanitation items. Merlin stayed in Bam for more than a year following the disaster, and helped build or refurbish 32 medical houses and 11 health centres.
Merlin was one of the first international humanitarian organisations to enter Baghdad just days after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003. Teams delivered emergency health kits and medical supplies to paediatric hospitals and health clinics throughout Baghdad, focusing on the most vulnerable groups such as women and children. Merlin also helped train and equip local health authorities to restart their activities and rehabilitate their war-ravaged infrastructure. In many areas of Baghdad, water and sanitation systems had become very poorly maintained, with some areas regularly flooded by sewage. In response, Merlin implemented water and sanitation projects, that helped approximately 35,000 people in the Greater Baghdad area.
North America
Merlin launched an emergency response within 48 hours of the earthquake and mobilised a specialised surgical and medical team to Delmas 33, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. On an abandoned tennis court, Merlin established a fully functional, tented surgical hospital. In partnership with Medicos del Mundo (MDM Spain), Merlin is also operating a mobile clinic team in and around the rural areas of Petit Goave and Grand Goave, which are two hours from the capital of Port-au-Prince. The mobile clinic circuit includes seven villages, each of which are underserved with significant health needs. Merlin's teams of doctors and nurses offer basic, maternal and neo-natal health care, while referring more severe cases to local hospitals for secondary treatment as needed
North Asia
Following the collapse of communism in the
In 2006 the Russian Federal Security Service accused Merlin and other foreign NGOs of being covers for foreign intelligence gathering operations.[11] However, this is reflective an overall trend of suspicion by the Russian government of NGOs, as in 2012 they passed a law requiring all politically active foreign NGOs to register as 'foreign agents' and to file quarterly reports on their finances.[12][13]
Southeast Asia
The
Hands Up for Health Workers campaign
Funding
The majority of funds comes from institutional donors, which include the UK's Department for International Development, the United States Agency for International Development and the European Commission. As a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which coordinates fundraising appeals for major disasters overseas, Merlin also receives an allocation of the total amounts raised. A small but increasing percentage is voluntary income. This includes private grant-making trusts and foundations, companies and donations from members of the public. Individuals organise diverse fundraising events, as well as being sponsored to take part in various 'challenge events' such as:
- The London Marathon
- The Welsh 3000s
- The London to Paris Bike Ride
- The Run to the Beat Half Marathon
- The Great South Run
- Skydiving
Footnotes
- ^ a b c UN DESA Profile.
- ^ Observatoire Humanitaire 2008.
- ^ a b Pincock 2005.
- ^ a b Morris 1998.
- ^ a b Anyangwe 2013.
- ^ a b Third Sector 2013.
- ^ Top 100 2012.
- ^ Lau 2010.
- ^ IRIN 2012.
- ^ Solberg 2010.
- ^ Myers 2006.
- ^ Ostroukh 2012.
- ^ Bidder 2012.
References
- Anyangwe, Eliza (17 July 2013). "Merlin, Save the Children and the business of not merging". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 31 January 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.
- Morris, Kelley (30 May 1998). "Merlin – why we need another hero". Lancet. 351 (9116): 1642. S2CID 54278778.
- Angelucci, Diane Donofrio (May 2011). "The Role of Physical Therapists in Disaster Relief". PT in Motion. 3 (4): 18–25. ISSN 1949-3711.
- "AID WATCH: MERLIN". NGO Directory. Observatoire Humanitaire. 31 May 2008. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- "United Nations Civil Society Participation – General (Merlin)". UN NGO Branch – Merlin – Profile. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- "#25 – Merlin". Top 100 NGOs. The Global Journal. 23 January 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
- Lau, Deb (March 2010). "Disaster relief: helping the survivors of the Haiti earthquake". Emergency Nurse. 17 (10): 18–21. PMID 20364780.
- Pincock, Stephen (22 January 2005). "Lunch with The Lancet". Lancet. 365 (9456): 287. ISSN 0099-5355.
- Myers, Steven Lee (23 January 2006). "Echoes of Cold War: Russia Accuses Britain of Spying". New York Times. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
- Ostroukh, Andrey (21 July 2012). "Russia's Putin signs NGO "foreign agents" law". Reuters. Retrieved 30 October 2012.
- Bidder, Benjamin (7 May 2012). "Kremlin Seeks to Brand Activists 'Foreign Agents'". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 30 October 2012.t
- "AID POLICY: From Rwanda to Haiti – what progress on accountability?". IRIN. 4 July 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
- Solberg, Kristin (25 September 2010). "Worst floods in living memory leave Pakistan in paralysis". The Lancet. 376 (9746): 1039–40. S2CID 12478186.
- "Analysis: Merlin and Save the Children". Third Sector. Haymarket Media Group. 30 July 2013. Archived from the original on 31 January 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2014.