Women and Children

Women in the world’s poorest countries, doubly constrained by their family obligations and a lack of economic opportunity, often bear the brunt of disaster, famine, and conflict. Eighty percent of the world’s refugees, in fact, are women and their children. With targeted initiatives, International Medical Corps (IMC) helps to alleviate this burden.

International Medical Corps’ health-care programming aims to reduce maternal and child mortality, heal traumatic injuries caused by childbirth and sexual abuse, and enable safe deliveries of high-risk cases by incorporating emergency obstetric care in local hospitals and clinics. Critically, IMC also helps to rehabilitate health-care infrastructure and provides education and on-the-job training for local doctors, nurses, midwives, and traditional birth attendants so that women and children will have access to quality health care long after IMC and other international agencies have completed their work.

To help them get back on their feet after a disaster, International Medical Corps runs microfinance programs that give women the opportunity to earn their own income, delivers nutritious meals for them and their families, and, importantly, offers education and training aimed at giving them the skills they need to care for themselves and their children, both financially and emotionally.

In short, through health care and economic opportunities, IMC gives women around the world the opportunity to lift themselves and their children out of poverty.